As I got to the airport at 05h45 this morning and seeing the queues at the parking and then the long lines at the check-in counters I was thinking how well the local airline industry must be doing right now.
As the local economy grows and more and more international visitors arrive, it must surely bode well for this sector of industry.
Not to even mention the 2010 World Cup around the corner.
Of course my thinking went immediately to their online presence and I was wondering how well they perform on the search engines.
So, as soon as I had a break between meetings, I fired up my newly acquired 3G card ( in a 3G zone this time) to see what’s up with the airlines and Google.
I must say, I was prepared for the fact that these guys will not perform too well but not one single results for one of the local airlines in the top 100 results for:
flights from joburg to cape town
Sure, flying between Cape Town and Joburg about twice a month on average, I know what my options are. This can surely not be said for the international traveler that wishes to do the same.
Johannesburg is well known as Joburg. In fact the official tourism web site for Johannesburg is www.joburg.co.za. So, no excuses there.
So, why are these airlines nowhere to be found?
In my humble opinion: plain and pure arrogance!
They have the money, the marketing budgets and the consultants. Somehow they just don’t think that people will actually search for them. They all do great business via the internet and encourage people to use their sites rather than their call centers or even travel agents (seeing that they no longer pay commission to travel agents).
But, they believe people will go directly to their sites and not even bother searching.
Well, this just creates great opportunities for more entrants to the market, I believe.

Maybe I will…

For 2 days now I have not been able to get my “online oxygen”
Telkom has informed me that my access was capped! I’ve been abused, insulted and laugehed at many times before. Never though have I ever been capped!
Well there you have it, I can only get access again from 1 February.
No problem I thought! I quickly sped off to my local mall and signed up for a 3G contract. Only 24hrs they said (max.) and I will be connected.
20 hours later…nothing.
So, her I go again, calling on my time at my expense. Oh no, my forms have not been faxed through yet.
Another call to the shop. No, it’s not their fault. To make a long story short, with just 1 hour to spare ( before the 24hr guarantee lapsed) I was connected!
Once I plugged the fancy little USB modem in I realised that in my neighbourhood there is no HSDPA or 3G , only GPRS.
So, here I am on the trusty ol’ dial-up account on the home PC.
The GPRS is way slower than this!
So, if you’ve had your daily dose of online oxygen spare a thought for me. I have been without for 2 days now.
Maybe tomorrow……

According to Johan Brink in today’s Fin24.co.za, there is a war raging between Microsoft and Google. He calls it a cold war as both parties are busy gaining ground in the other’s territory.
Microsoft is moving from software to online tools and Google is venturing into software.

A war usually has one winner and one loser. A war also indicates losses, casualties and collateral damage.
Whether this is the case with Google vs Microsoft I just don’t know or can’t say.
I believe it is more case of a number of smaller battles where both will win some battles and gain some ground from the other.
We do also have loyalty issues at stake here as well, so maybe it won’t be an all out war! I don’t know whether I will switch loyalties just because the one company launches a new product or service.
Now that I use open source (OpenOffice) word processing, I don’t know what will convince me to pay for such services in the future. Also, using mostly Google ( let’s say 99%) of the time, I can’t see myself switching to another search engine.
It certainly does not mean that I have any problems with another product, I just don’t see why I should change.
What’s more, there is no reason why I can’t use / have both! I am sure that a lot of people fall in that category.
So, my verdict: the battles ( maybe not war) are on for the new users to the wonderful world of the internet and that the existing users will either stay where they are or have both, rather than using one company’s services / products exclusively.
Just do a search for Microsoft vs Google or Google vs Microsoft and you will see that this topic is getting way too much coverage!

So, does SMS and MMS marketing fall within the “eMarketing” spectrum so to speak.
Sure a sms/mms is an electronic medium but do companies, individuals and marketers see it as such?
Do companies actually have sms/mms marketing strategies?
I certainly have not advised any client on such a strategy. Maybe a once off campaign yes, but that’s it.
Do we really want to go down that route with the irritation factors involved?
Sure if you are targeting low-income consumers, young adults or other niche target groups, this must be a very appealing and inexpensive way to reach your market.
Still, the user has to pay about 50 cents to unsubscribe from most MMS campaigns.
I must say I need to get my head around this and will be looking into it over the next few weeks to get a clearer understanding of it.

This from Ian Kruger, MD of BlueRiverstone, the company commissioned to conduct the FM web site survey:

Our research definitely shows a chasm between websites and email communications, they are often done by different departments and technical teams but from the perspective of the user they form a continuum. In my view an email should be designed with the website in mind and visa versa to facilitate their inter-operability

This morning I had a chat with two very experienced and competent individuals. The topic of CRM was raised and how companies misunderstand CRM and even abuse it.
According to Wikipedia, CRM is:
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broad term that covers concepts used by companies to manage their relationships with customers, including the capture, storage and analysis of customer information.

In my understanding this means: managing the relationships with your customers.
This can be broken down further by stating:

1. This is a programme / plan / activity that involves customers. These are the people with whom you are already doing business.
2. It implies you have a relationship with said customers. If not, one can assume that the idea is to have such a relationship with your customer.
3. The relationships with these customers needs to be managed.

So, with those points in mind, why would a big company with a well structured CRM
programme / department actually give their CRM database to the sales department to use it to sell to the existing customers by means of bulk emails or telesales?
I can understand it when the CRM team has been made aware of a specific customer’s request to speak to some-one about upgrading their service / product and this gets handed to sales or better yet the relevant account executive.
But, to use the CRM database to constantly send emails of special offers, upgrades, new services, etc, surely goes against the grain of what CRM is all about.

How long should one wait for a friend to respond on an email?
What about a colleague who wants to meet? A prospective client? What about a website enquiry?
According the the Financial Mail Top 100 companies survey ( Top 100 websites) released today, the listed companies in general don’t take emails from investors, potential employees or potential customers very seriously at all.
From the research conducted by BlueRiverStone:

Replies that did not arrive within a week of the original query were disregarded, based on past experience that the vast majority of companies reply to e-mails within three days or not at all.About two thirds of companies didn’t reply to either of the candidate e-mails while close on a half didn’t answer either of the commerce e-mails.

Close on a fifth did not answer any of the e-mails that were sent to them as part of the research.

Only 58% of companies replied to the investor-related inquiry and 53% responded to the public relations inquiry.

A third of companies responded to both and 21% responded to neither.

Wow! How can we even begin to preach emarketing to generate extra or new qualified traffic to a company’s web site, if they don’t even do the very basic by respecting the person who has made the time and effort to go to their web site to fill in an enquiry, with the decency to respond to such enquiry.

This morning while on my daily mountain bike ride I took a phone call that almost upset me. The only reason I took the phone with in the first place is because I was waiting for some-one to confirm an appointment.
So, while enjoying nature and thinking about my plans for the day, the phone rang and I answered:
Me: “Japie here”
Caller: “Good day, is that Mr Japie Swanepoel?”
Me: “yes”
Caller: ” Mr Swanepoel, blah blah company ( did not hear the name) has selected you to receive our life cover and funeral policy benefit plan and…
Me: ” Excuse me, where did you get my contact details?”
Caller: “The FNB consumer database”
Me: ” I am not a FNB client and not interested. Good bye”

So, I thought, is that a spam call?
For years now every time I introduce myself to some-one and they ask what I do, I tell them I’m in eMarketing.
“oh, you’re the guy that sends us all that spam emails” is the general response, most people not even hearing the word “marketing”
Of course I used to get very offended, explaining that we only send emails on behalf of clients who have qualified opt-in lists, always have an unsubscribe option with every email and that we always abide by the law, as prescribed in the ECT act.
(Of course three years down the line, I simply agree with them).
All the same, how do I unsubscribe to a spam call?
Must I now make a call at my cost and probably be put on hold while I be transferred from department to department to find out who is responsible.
I mean, we are not talking about First Naboomspruit Bank or even First Nelspruit Bank, no I was spammed by First National Bank!
Time for me to re-read the ECT act to see what my rights are here and what recourse there is.

One of my biggest concerns about emarketing in South Africa is the lack of exposure it gets in the academic institutions in South Africa. I know emarketing is an elective in some MBA programmes but I have yet to hear of a university that even has a semester course in emarketing.
Judging by the lack of understanding of the field in the business world, one can only assume that this topic will become more and more important and that including it in any marketing / business course will be essential and not just a nice-to-have.
One of my personal goals this year is to get the institutions to wake-up to emarketing.
Great was my joy when I saw an ad for Electronic Marketing Officer in last week’s Sunday Times for UNISA no less.
The requirements, besides the normal web and graphic design experience, also calls for some-one with experience in:

• “search engine registration”
• “electronic communication”
• “creative writing ability

The duties include:

• “…advertising campaigns using the internet”
• ” strategic planning”
• “…online electronic branding”

So, I thought, if they understand the need for such an individual to assist with the marketing of UNISA as a brand, it can not be too long now (hopefully years and not decades ) before they and other institutions realise that their students need to know about it too.
In fact, what an irony: a university wanting to employ some-one with a skill / qualification that they themselves don’t offer.

Is there hope for Africa when it comes to the internet? How can we talk about eMarketing when so many millions don’t even have access to the internet? Every day we read how the big European and American countries look toward Africa to grow their market share. We know that China, Korea and the like all want a slice of the African market.
Maybe it is time that we put some pressure on those countries to put more effort into improving the telecoms infrastructure in Africa.
According to the The African Media Development Initiative (AMDI) who released their Media report yesterday, 15 January, radio is the dominant mass media channel while television is less widely available, especially in rural areas.
Newspapers remain focused on urban areas while the uptake of mobile phones has been spectacular, far exceeding uptake of the Internet. In 10 of the countries surveyed, less than 2% of the national population is estimated to use the Internet.
Combined, South Africa and Nigeria comprise two-thirds of the Internet population within the surveyed countries.
( read the full article on BizCommunity )
So, is there hope?
Not only do I believe there is hope, but from an entrepreneur’s point of view there is SCOPE and LOTS of it.
Let’s all make an effort to get Africa connected in order for the internet to really be the life changing tool we all know it can be.
Yes, this call has been made often but it still isn’t enough and somehow we mere mortals have to find a way that we can contribute to this.