All posts by Betul Colak

Articles

Share products you love

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Imagine it’s July 2017 and you’re a freshly graduated BIM student. Together with a friend you decide to start your own company and sell your own products. You have some great ideas and great plans! Everything is elaborated in your business plan and you are ready to enter the market. But how are you going to reach your customer? Making use of social media would make sense, since almost 10 million people in the Netherlands visited Facebook (marketingfacts, 2017). How can you use these social media platforms in the most effective way? This is where Sellify comes along!

Sellify. What is it? Continue reading Share products you love →

Articles, Opinion

How social media changed the way we communicate

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Social media has changed the way how consumers and marketers communicate. Word-of-mouth is more and more shifting from offline to online platforms. Social media websites respond to this shift by providing public forums where individual consumers can show their own voices. Thereby, the consumers have the accessibility to product information from other consumers that could influence their purchase decision. This kind of word-of-mouth increases the way that consumers process information and the way that marketing messages are distributed. Needless to say that this has an impact on consumer decision making and thus marketing strategies.

Why is this paper so important?

This paper is about how an individual becomes socialized through positive interaction on social media websites to use some product or service and what the impact of that is. This paper is important because it is distinguishing itself from existing literature by focussing on peer communication in online socialization processes. Particularly the influence of peer communication through social media web sites on consumers’ purchase decision. This has rarely been investigated and this research tries to fill the gap.

Methodology

To test the research question, the researchers used the data set of one of the largest Internet portal in China, www.sina.com. The researches placed an extra link on the homepage of the site, asking whether the visitor wanted to participate. To increase the incentive of the visitor, the participants had a chance to win a laptop. A total of 935 participants clicked the survey link, which makes the research quite dependable.

The most important result is that peer communication through social meida positively influences purchase intentions in two ways: a direct influence through conformity and an indirect influence by reinforcing precept involvement. This peer communication can be increased by strengthening individual-level tie strength with peers as well the group-level identification with a peer group.

Main strengths and Managerial Implications

One of the main strengths of this article is their data collection. The article used real life data to test their research, liked already discussed here above. Because of this real-fie data, the validity of the paper can be guaranteed.

This paper divides the managerial implications into three parties: implication for Marketers, implication for Online Advertisers and implication for Social Media Website Operators. I want to address the most important ones. This article can be used Online Advertisers for many reasons. Increasing activity of the users at social media platforms, may encourage visitors to build new kinds of relationships with the sponsoring organization. Besides, an advertiser that can use social media to respond effectively to consumer commentary on review sites gains a great advantage because it can engage customers in conversations to understand their needs and build relationships throughout the purchase and after purchase process.

 

X Wang, C Yu, Y Wei (2012) “Social media peer communication and impacts on purchase intentions: A consumer socialization framework”. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(4), 198-208

Articles, Business Case, News, Opinion

What are you going to eat tonight?

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We all have that moment once in a while that we don’t want to cook. But also ordering at Deliveroo or Foodora doesn’t sound that attractive anymore, since you feel like a regular customer already. You miss the home cooked meals of your mother, but don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen to make an attempt of copying her dish. What to do? AirDnD offers the solution.

What is AirDnD?
AirDnD is founded in 2015 by Rob Lagendijk and his motive is simple: it provides amateur and home chefs – you, me, your neighbour – the possibility to start their own mini restaurant in their home. “This is the moment to participate in the share economy and food is hot” are the words of CEO and founder Rob. AirDnD stands for Air Drink ‘n Dine. The platform is intended for home chefs, not for entrepreneurs. Other people can enjoy a home cooked mail by one of their neighbours by looking for interesting dishes on the platform itself.

So, how does it work exactly?
The platform is a two-sided market and creates a community between home chefs and people who wants to go out for a lovely home cooked meal. It solely depends on the value creation of the users and they put the customer in charge! Home chefs can create their own page where they can state their menu card, the prices for their different kind of dishes and even mention when they are ‘open’. You can specify your profile by telling other people how you live, what you like and how your house looks like.

People who wants to eat are also creating a profile, so that they can look for a home chef in their neighbourhood. After finding the ideal chef, you can make a reservation on the site. And before you know it, you are at the table with a couple of strangers at one of your neighbour’s house enjoying a nice, home cooked meal!

schermafbeelding-2017-02-17-om-22-20-52

Home chefs determine their own price for their dishes. For €15 you can enjoy a “Fishy lunch” or pay some more for a four-course menu including wine. AirDnD is asking 10% for each reservation. So if a home chef is asking €15 for their dish, the guest will pay €16,50. The payments are done through the platform.

Challenges of new business idea’s
A new business idea is always facing some challenges. Like many other starters, take UBER or Airbnb for example, AirDnD is coping with these challenges. The biggest burden AirDnD has to cope with is the “Koninklijke Horeca Nederland”. Royal Horeca Netherlands (KHN) pursues its activities to the best possible business environment for the hospitality industry. They are scared that AirDnD will take the customers away from current restaurants. The KNH thinks that the home chefs who are using AirDnD must comply to the same rules as restaurants. Otherwise the competition is unfair they claim.

And now?
The founder of AirDnD is not worried about this challenges and believes in his idea. In the first couple of weeks there were already 700 home chefs registering on the site. Within a year they have grown to over 2000 different home chefs, opening up their house to strangers to enjoy a home cooked meal and they are still growing. The philosophy of AirDnD is simple: they just want to create a unique experience and offer great food for food lovers!

What do you think?
Will AirDnD be a succes? And will you make use of the opportunity to eat a lovely home cooked meal by one of your neighbors?

Sources
Tsekouras, D. (2017, 2 February). Introduction to Customer Centric Digital Commerce. Accessed on https://bb-app01.ict.eur.nl/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_29596_1&content_id=_165770_1

www.rtlnieuws.nl/editienl/dineren-bij-thuiskok-woonkamer-schoner-dan-restaurant
www.airdnd.nl/platform/Search?search=rotterdam
www.airdnd.nl
www.khn.nl/themas/belangenbehartiging
binnenland.eenvandaag.nl/tv-items/62883/horeca_vreest_valse_concurrentie_van_hobbykoks_airdnd