Assignment: Wireless Advertising Vindigo.com (vindigo.com) has a large database

Question

Assignment:

Wireless Advertising

Vindigo.com (vindigo.com) has a large database of cus­tomers willing to accept promotional materials on their wireless devices. This is known as permission marketing. The users download special software on their smartphones or PDAs that allows Vindigo.com to deliver timely, accurate information about places to go and things to do in their area. Along with every listing, the company can deliver a customized message to the users at a time and place where it is of most interest to them and they are most likely to act on it.

The company targets ads by city (New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc.) and channel (Eat, Shop, or Play). Vindigo.com tracks which ads a user sees and selects, and even allows a user to request information from an advertiser via email. Vindigo.com determines a user's location through GPS or by asking which neigh­borhoods they want to be matched with. For example, if you own an Italian restaurant chain, you can use Vindigo.com to send a message to anyone looking for Italian food within a few blocks of one of your loca­tions. You can give them directions to that restaurant and even offer them the list of specials on the menu and discounts.

MyAvantGo.Com (avantgo.com) has over 2,500 content channels and over 7 million registered users. The content is delivered to smartphone and PDA users. MyAvantgo offers an m-business channel and direct promotions to deliver advertising from some of the world's top brands including American Airlines, Chevy Trucks, the Golf Chan­nel, CNN, the New York Times, and Yahoo.

Hoping to become the king of location-based web domains, Go2Online (go2online.com) helps mobile travelers find everything from lodging (choose go2hotels) to Jiffy Lube stations (choose go2oilchanges). Partnering with Sprint, NexTel, Verizon, and BellSouth, Go2 makes its services available to smartphone and PDA users. Entering "JiffyLube" or hundreds of other brand names into the Go2 system will bring up the nearest location where a shopper can find that product or service.

Address the following questions:

Give an overview of the case and the issues it raises.

The number of ads pushed to an individual should be limited. Why?

What security issues should vendors and users be aware of?

What ethical issues does wireless advertising cause?

Would you be willing to listen to a 10-second commercial if you got free airtime?

What other observations from the text do you notice in this case?

Explanation / Answer

The overview is that they are conducing a kind of activity called the permission marketing. If you permit the marketers can provide you with the details that you are looking for in your location. But the issue that seems to be raised in this context is that an individual is allowing himself to be disturbed by a marketer. An individual does not have the control of the timing at which he wants to see that marketing promotion.

Number of ads to be pushed through to an individual must be limited. Too much of anything will also cause hatred. If an individual is too much pissed off with anything, he will totally unsubsrible to the entire marketing procedure, and you cannot reach them through any wireless medium.

The users and vendors must be fully aware of the security issues. The hacking of other useful data is possible by the hackers. You personal information could go public in this type of promotional marketing.

One of the ethical issue is talking ill of the competitors. Downsizing on the distance at which the required object is available to the viewer. Misinterpreting the quality of the product in the promotional video.

No. I will not be willing to listen to any commercial, if I had to get any free time. I will switch over to the other work immediately. The human mind itself will work in such a way only.

The observations that I notice in this case is that, this is the new way of marketing and this will capture the market share of the advertising agencies very sooner. Advertisers will come to this kind of marketing, since it will save costs on their pockets.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse A
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.