Dark Marketing
Friday, October 2, 2009 by DGreen
Simon Hendery recently reported for the online Herald that social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Twitter attract 90 per cent of New Zealand internet users, he goes on to report that “97 per cent of internet users now research online before making a significant purchase.” Hendery connects these two statistics and reports that together they indicate a massive opportunity for advertisers. Yet he also notes that advertising often repels users of these social networking sites. The solution for advertisers notes Hendery is “dark marketing”.
“Dark marketing” is a covert way for brands to communicate with their target markets. In their article Dark Marketing Chris Cox and Wendy Collett elaborate, “At the heart of “dark marketing” is its perceived innocence – it would appear to be like any other human communication in its manifestation, however, underlying this is the somewhat subversive intent to promote the interests of the brand.” “Dark marketing” is gaining popularity among advertisers as certain industries such as the music industry experience a decrease in profits due to increased popularity of the Internet.
This idea that advertisers are increasingly moving away from traditional advertising methods to use more sneaky tactics to promote their brands is a worrying thought. Hendery notes, “"branded" video content would become an increasingly important outlet for businesses wanting to market online.” That is that this form of marketing needs to be entertaining or informative before online users will accept it. These videos could take a similar form to the Ray Bans video Luke screened during this week’s lecture. Hendery’s article illustrates how the Internet is increasingly being utilized as a vehicle for capitalist activities.
References
Cox, C. & Collett, W. (2007, Febuary 2). Dark Marketing. Retrieved October 1,
2009, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/456385/Dark-Marketing
Hendery, S. (2009, September 24). Social Sites Catch 90pc of Kiwi Web
Users. The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10599190&pnum=2
“Dark marketing” is a covert way for brands to communicate with their target markets. In their article Dark Marketing Chris Cox and Wendy Collett elaborate, “At the heart of “dark marketing” is its perceived innocence – it would appear to be like any other human communication in its manifestation, however, underlying this is the somewhat subversive intent to promote the interests of the brand.” “Dark marketing” is gaining popularity among advertisers as certain industries such as the music industry experience a decrease in profits due to increased popularity of the Internet.
This idea that advertisers are increasingly moving away from traditional advertising methods to use more sneaky tactics to promote their brands is a worrying thought. Hendery notes, “"branded" video content would become an increasingly important outlet for businesses wanting to market online.” That is that this form of marketing needs to be entertaining or informative before online users will accept it. These videos could take a similar form to the Ray Bans video Luke screened during this week’s lecture. Hendery’s article illustrates how the Internet is increasingly being utilized as a vehicle for capitalist activities.
References
Cox, C. & Collett, W. (2007, Febuary 2). Dark Marketing. Retrieved October 1,
2009, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/456385/Dark-Marketing
Hendery, S. (2009, September 24). Social Sites Catch 90pc of Kiwi Web
Users. The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10599190&pnum=2