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s.mueller

How sharing learned online affects our offline behavior

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Here is a really interesting article that deals with a phenomenon you can observe in real life. Spending time online is often said to have negative effects on us: isolation, lack of real communication, lack of physical activity, bad for the eyes, and so on.

This article deals with the fact that online behavior can also affect our offline behavior and in a POSITIVE way! The central statement of the article is that sharing which has become a central element of our digital world effects our sharing propensity in real life. The motivation behind it may differ greatly from person to person but many who learned to share online also do so in everyday life. And in greater numbers than before. Check the article and think abuot if online sharing has also had an impact on you.

Here is the link to the NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2010/10/07/07readwriteweb-has-online-sharing-spurred-a-new-offline-sh-66412.html?pagewanted=print

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s.mueller

Trying to reach Samsung customer service….

For quite some time I have been trying to get in touch with Samsung Deutschland in order to return our compact digital camera which seems to have some technical problems (I just decided not to do its job anymore). Samsung offers a special contact form which is separated into the different product segments and thus alllows to filter for the specific product. I gave it three times and have not received anything back so far, I even included images of the brand new looking camera to show that there is no exterior damage at all. But somehow there is no one on the other line….

From the start:

1) First Attempt
I went to Samsung’s website to check for the ideal way to get in contact for returning our at that time 0,75 yrs old camera. I even found the contact form and then had to find my way to the somewhat confusing manual when it comes to compact digital camera. Walking the path that seems intuitively right did not bring me to my model. Instead I had to try severyl menu combinations to finally get to my model. I then fillled in all the contact details into the form, explained the problem with the cam and then sent it off.

2) Over and Over
Having sent away the message I did not get a confirmation via email. So I simply had to assume the message reached its recipient and Samsung would soon answer to tell me the nearest service company I have to send the camera to. But no response. So I filled out the form again thinking that maybe theres was some important box not checked, etc. Again, all worked fine, all was filled out – no response. I did all that three times:
Samsung_support425x

After several weeks of simply postponing the issue I checked the Samsung website again. Relauched! It looks pretty good: big visuals, a feeling of proximity, nice menus, features, new form promiosing „one day response“ Sounds really good.

New Samsung.de

New Samsung.de


Well, I also tried to use this new way to contact Samsung customer service and the result as of 27 March 2010 is „nada.“ No response aside from the automatically generated confirmation email.
What is going wrong? Is there a database issue, do they lack the necessary personnel to really respond within a day? I would also be happy with a 2 day response, just any response at all…

to be continued..

Update 09 April 2010: Samsung did answers. Unfortunately I received no email notification about Samsung’s reply. Also, when logging in at samsung.de I can check the status of my inquiry. Again unfortunately, Samung’s response is shown directly UNDER my message just like in an answered email. Thus even when you login and check the status of your customer inquiry you do not at once see that there is an answer at all. Only when you scroll down you all of a sudden realized that there IS a response. However, I must admit that they indeed answered within one day! Promise kept!
So please Samsung, try to give this form some update and make it more user-friendly. I am quite experienced in the web. But like so many other customers I am notoriously short of time and thus it took me 2 weeks to realize Samsung responded. Give it some more work and you will have a really good online service tool.

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s.mueller

Want Teens to Notice Your Product Placement? Use the Web

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fastcompany.com:

Teens and college students are skipping or tuning out traditional advertising more and more, minimizing screens or muting the volume. Being able to be part of the content youth consume or even creating branded content is one way brands can make sure their product is seen, and advertisers are spending millions of dollars to ensure that happens. The problem, as our research shows, is that even when teens and college students do notice product placements, it doesn’t necessarily change their feelings about that product.

Product placement aimed at kids and teens is not new. Toy companies began placing their products on children’s TV shows back in the 1950s on programs like Romper Room, you might have noticed the queen bees of Gossip Girl using Verizon phones like the LG Chocolate, the orange EnV, or Motorola Krzr–all part of an integrated deal with the wireless carrier. For many marketers product placement remains a viable way to create brand awareness among young people–but with this generation having been marketed to on multiple screens pretty much since birth, does product placement even work?

The answer is yes, but not in the way marketers are hoping. We found that 72% of teens and 77% of college students notice product placement, and the top three products they notice on television shows are beverages, cell phones, and cars. But only one in seven report that those product placements have any effect on their perception of the brands.

But it turns out there is one „product“ teens and college students say they not only notice but actively pursue: Web sites. 38% of teens and 26% of college students noticed Web sites in a TV show or movie. And 53% of them reported going online to check the site out.

Web sites

So while we don’t have tangible evidence that the products youth notice most are having much of an impact, we do know that getting your Web site featured on a popular TV show or in a film is a great way to drive youth awareness, not to mention traffic. Maybe we’ll start seeing fewer soda cans on TV, and more characters playing a game on the soda maker’s Web site.

About Youth Pulse, Inc.
Ypulse is the leading authority on tweens, teens, collegians, and young adults, providing news, commentary, events, research & strategy. Our integrated platform comprises www.ypulse.com, a daily newsletter, conferences and an online research community: www.surveyu.com.

Here s the link to the article on FastCompany.com:

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/anastasia-goodstein/youth-pulse/when-using-product-placement-reach-youth-web-sites-stand-out

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