Global survey uncovers most popular brands across a variety of categories
BuzzCity, the mobile media company has today released the findings of its latest study of mobile internet users across the globe. The study investigated which brands have the most appeal among the mobile internet audience, why this audience prefers these brands and how likely they are to recommend their favourite brands. The aim of the study is to help brands from all sectors and the agencies that work with them to better understand the mobile internet consumer and how to influence their purchasing decisions.
The study found that the brands most favoured by mobile internet users across the globe were as follows:
1 KFC
2 McDonald's
3 Sony
4 Nestle
5 Samsung
6 Nokia
7 LG
8 Coca-Cola
9 Panasonic
10 Philips
The survey also revealed that users typically base their preferences on brand performance first followed by style and then price. Quality, reliability, value and trust all also influence choice.
“We have been carrying out regular studies in to the mindset of mobile internet users for the past few years,” says KF Lai, CEO of BuzzCity. “It is clear from this study that mobile surfers are ardent brand advocates and will regularly make recommendations to peers. To encourage this, there is the potential for brands to share more product information through the mobile platform. This would be especially potent in the food sector where domestic brands dominate. Brands such as Arab Dairy (Egypt), Amul (India), Indofood (Indonesia), Mama (Thailand), San Miguel (Phillipines) and Simba (South Africa) operate in markets where the mobile internet is, most likely, the only access users have to the internet.”
The study found that although 54% of mobile users would recommend a brand to their peers only 4% would in reaction to a specific sales promotion. This finding offers brands significant insight when it comes to the type of campaigns to run over a mobile platform.
“Consumer behaviour on mobile is different from that on the internet,” continued KF Lai. “Our research shows that although some brands are starting to develop mobile strategies, there is still much work to be done. Simply producing a mobile website will no longer cut it with these savvy consumers. The provision of m-banking services and the development of mobile widgets and feeds that make content discovery and consumption easier and more accessible, are two very good places for brands to start.”
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
New twist in book-scan deal
A judge has given Google Inc more time to revise a legal settlement that has drawn government scrutiny because it would give the Internet search leader the digital rights to millions of out-of-print books.
Under a change approved on Monday,Google and groups representing US authors and publishers now have until Friday to change an agreement reached more than a year ago. It marked the latest twist in a copyright lawsuit that the authors and publishers filed against Google's digital book project four years ago.
The revisions to the settlement were supposed to be filed by the end of Monday, but Google and its negotiating partners told US District Judge Denny Chin they still needed to address objections raised in September by the US Justice Department. Chin signed off on the extension without comment.
The Justice Department has warned it probably would try to block the current agreement from taking effect because antitrust regulators had concluded it threatened to thwart competition and drive up prices.
Some of the Justice Department's preliminary findings echoed concerns from a chorus of critics that include Google rivals Microsoft Corp, Yahoo Inc and Amazon.com Inc.
Google had insisted the settlement merited court approval until the Justice Department raised red flags.
In its current form, the settlement would entrust Google with a digital database containing millions of copyright-protected books, including volumes no longer being published. The Internet search leader would act as the sales agent for the authors and publishers,giving 63% of the revenue to the copyright holders.
The Justice Department believes the arrangement could lead to collusion that would raise the prices for digital books a format that is expected to become increasingly popular with the advent of electronic readers such as Amazon's Kindle.
Google contends its plan to make digital copies of so many hard-to-find books would benefit society by making more knowledge available to anyone with an Internet connection.
For that reason, the Justice Department has said it hopes an acceptable compromise can be worked out.
Under a change approved on Monday,Google and groups representing US authors and publishers now have until Friday to change an agreement reached more than a year ago. It marked the latest twist in a copyright lawsuit that the authors and publishers filed against Google's digital book project four years ago.
The revisions to the settlement were supposed to be filed by the end of Monday, but Google and its negotiating partners told US District Judge Denny Chin they still needed to address objections raised in September by the US Justice Department. Chin signed off on the extension without comment.
The Justice Department has warned it probably would try to block the current agreement from taking effect because antitrust regulators had concluded it threatened to thwart competition and drive up prices.
Some of the Justice Department's preliminary findings echoed concerns from a chorus of critics that include Google rivals Microsoft Corp, Yahoo Inc and Amazon.com Inc.
Google had insisted the settlement merited court approval until the Justice Department raised red flags.
In its current form, the settlement would entrust Google with a digital database containing millions of copyright-protected books, including volumes no longer being published. The Internet search leader would act as the sales agent for the authors and publishers,giving 63% of the revenue to the copyright holders.
The Justice Department believes the arrangement could lead to collusion that would raise the prices for digital books a format that is expected to become increasingly popular with the advent of electronic readers such as Amazon's Kindle.
Google contends its plan to make digital copies of so many hard-to-find books would benefit society by making more knowledge available to anyone with an Internet connection.
For that reason, the Justice Department has said it hopes an acceptable compromise can be worked out.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
FINALLY, EQUALITY ON THE INTERNET
More than half of the world's 1.67 billion Internet surfers will find their life online getting a little easier soon, because they will no longer need to use English or any other Latin script to find Web pages. Users will be able to find sites by typing or searching for Web addresses in their own script such as Chinese, Japanese, Arabic or Korean.
Icann, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, decided last week to support full addresses in non-Latin characters. Countries can apply to register tehse internationalised domain names from November 16. Other top-level names, including those ending in.com,.net and so on, will similarly be available in the coming years.
The faster-growing non-Latin user community can no longer be neglected. Beyond the ease of use and convenience, benefits will include at least symbolic equality on the Net. For them it promises a world of difference. For Latin surfers, however, not much will change. They will not, in any case, type non-Latin addresses to access content in languages they do not comprehend.
Cyberspace, nevertheless, is as dynamic as it is unpredictable. The social, cultural and commercial ramifications of what Icann called "the biggest technical change" in Internet history will become obvious only in the long term, if not in hindsight.
An immediate consequence is that it will promote communication among, and therefore attract more, non-Latin users. Sheer numbers are what are often needed to drive Internet innovations. Take Google for instance, it gets a cut every time a user clicks on advertising appearing alongside results from searches they make through the billions of Web pages it indexes.
Chinese domain names might enable Chinese to overtake English. If so, they will help the virtual economic epicentre to move eastward, the same direction that the real economy is going in the current global realignment. The Chinese market will be hard to ignore online as well as off-line. Singapore is favourably placed linguistically to compete. Singaporean enterprises should not neglect building Chinese e-commerce sites if they want to communicate with and sell to that market. For added customer convenience, they should also adopt Chinese Web addresses.
Icann, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, decided last week to support full addresses in non-Latin characters. Countries can apply to register tehse internationalised domain names from November 16. Other top-level names, including those ending in.com,.net and so on, will similarly be available in the coming years.
The faster-growing non-Latin user community can no longer be neglected. Beyond the ease of use and convenience, benefits will include at least symbolic equality on the Net. For them it promises a world of difference. For Latin surfers, however, not much will change. They will not, in any case, type non-Latin addresses to access content in languages they do not comprehend.
Cyberspace, nevertheless, is as dynamic as it is unpredictable. The social, cultural and commercial ramifications of what Icann called "the biggest technical change" in Internet history will become obvious only in the long term, if not in hindsight.
An immediate consequence is that it will promote communication among, and therefore attract more, non-Latin users. Sheer numbers are what are often needed to drive Internet innovations. Take Google for instance, it gets a cut every time a user clicks on advertising appearing alongside results from searches they make through the billions of Web pages it indexes.
Chinese domain names might enable Chinese to overtake English. If so, they will help the virtual economic epicentre to move eastward, the same direction that the real economy is going in the current global realignment. The Chinese market will be hard to ignore online as well as off-line. Singapore is favourably placed linguistically to compete. Singaporean enterprises should not neglect building Chinese e-commerce sites if they want to communicate with and sell to that market. For added customer convenience, they should also adopt Chinese Web addresses.
DEVELOPERS TURNING TO INTERNET
Thailand's property firms are adapting their marketing strategies to meet the new information-technology era, and are cementing an image change from property market operators to lifestyle businesses.
Although they have not abandoned traditional marketing media, many firms are using integrated marketing with increasing emphasis on new online channels.
For example, Land & Houses (L&H) has launched an Internet homepage, www.my1sthome.in.th, aimed at attracting first-time homebuyers. The company is reaching out to a younger market, such as new members of the workforce, who expect to use the Internet to obtain information.
Sansiri has begun using the wildly popular social-networking power of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter as a means of attracting people to its main website www.homeandicom. It hopes to be able to create a social network between the company and its customers.
Meanwhile, LPN Development plans to bring an online social-net-working atmosphere to its new website, www.30happydays.com. The company has now developed more than 60 residential projects, and it hopes the website will become a centre for communication between the company and its customers.
Property Perfect launched its latest marketing tool via a social online network after 15 per cent of its customer were found to visit its projects through Facebook and Twitter, said project-planning director Thongchai Piyasantiwong.
The company also launched a miniseries that can be viewed at www.thehappylivingstory.com, to help drive its sales, he said.
LPN Development managing director Opas Sripayak said his company's website would create a close relationship between the company and its customers, providing a channel through which the company could learn by direct contact what its customers wanted in order to suit their lifestyles.
Suparat Veerakul, vice president for communications at L&H, said her company's homepage was aimed at tapping customers aged 25-35 who were probably first-time home-buyers.
The page includes tips on how to buy houses. It also provides games to test people to see whether they are ready to own a home. Other content includes promotions and details of L&H products. LH Bank will also provide online consultation services to people on home financing, she said.
People who sign up as members of the homepage will receive a special loan rate from LH Bank when buying residences advertised on the site.
She said it should fit with the lifestyle of the "young adult" group.
"We think the Internet is the most effective way to reach them," she said.
Samatcha Promsiri, senior marketing manager at Sansiri, said after opening its digital-era marketing media earlier this year that integration between new media channels would help the company to respond faster and provide information directly to customers.
Research by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce shows demand for Internet access has become increasingly popular, especially among college students, who these days do their research and seek information on the Internet for their papers and careers.
The number of Internet users in Thailand reached nearly 13 million at the end of last year, according to a survey by TT&T.
Although they have not abandoned traditional marketing media, many firms are using integrated marketing with increasing emphasis on new online channels.
For example, Land & Houses (L&H) has launched an Internet homepage, www.my1sthome.in.th, aimed at attracting first-time homebuyers. The company is reaching out to a younger market, such as new members of the workforce, who expect to use the Internet to obtain information.
Sansiri has begun using the wildly popular social-networking power of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter as a means of attracting people to its main website www.homeandicom. It hopes to be able to create a social network between the company and its customers.
Meanwhile, LPN Development plans to bring an online social-net-working atmosphere to its new website, www.30happydays.com. The company has now developed more than 60 residential projects, and it hopes the website will become a centre for communication between the company and its customers.
Property Perfect launched its latest marketing tool via a social online network after 15 per cent of its customer were found to visit its projects through Facebook and Twitter, said project-planning director Thongchai Piyasantiwong.
The company also launched a miniseries that can be viewed at www.thehappylivingstory.com, to help drive its sales, he said.
LPN Development managing director Opas Sripayak said his company's website would create a close relationship between the company and its customers, providing a channel through which the company could learn by direct contact what its customers wanted in order to suit their lifestyles.
Suparat Veerakul, vice president for communications at L&H, said her company's homepage was aimed at tapping customers aged 25-35 who were probably first-time home-buyers.
The page includes tips on how to buy houses. It also provides games to test people to see whether they are ready to own a home. Other content includes promotions and details of L&H products. LH Bank will also provide online consultation services to people on home financing, she said.
People who sign up as members of the homepage will receive a special loan rate from LH Bank when buying residences advertised on the site.
She said it should fit with the lifestyle of the "young adult" group.
"We think the Internet is the most effective way to reach them," she said.
Samatcha Promsiri, senior marketing manager at Sansiri, said after opening its digital-era marketing media earlier this year that integration between new media channels would help the company to respond faster and provide information directly to customers.
Research by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce shows demand for Internet access has become increasingly popular, especially among college students, who these days do their research and seek information on the Internet for their papers and careers.
The number of Internet users in Thailand reached nearly 13 million at the end of last year, according to a survey by TT&T.
Magnificent seven
In the most important, most revered event since the invention of the brontosaurus trap,Microsoft shipped the most incredibly fabulous operating system ever made; the release of Windows 7 also spurred a new generation of personal computers of all sizes at prices well below last month's offers.The top reason Windows 7 does not suck: There is no registered website called Windows7Sucks.com
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
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