Business Ideas

MG331 Innovation, Marketing & New Technology Foresight 2011 – 2012

Dr Michael Gannon

Shane Barry (58535191)

Reflective Diaries

Speaker: Dr Hugh Henry, Head of Innovation, Bord Na Mona

Topic: The role of innovation and (the Open Innovation Model) in winning market share, creating and retaining customers and creating value for Bord Na Mona.

What do you want to learn from this session?

With Dr. Hugh Henry from Bord Na Mona coming in and with a job title like “Head of Innovation” I was exciting that I was going to learn a lot about innovation in practice in the work place. You do a lot of lectures and readings about innovation and the thoughts and ideas surrounding it. It was going to be a great opportunity for us to see someone who heads the innovation department in a company and how the theory is put into practice. There were some main learning points I wanted to take out of this lecture. 

How innovation is used within Bord Na Mona?

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How do you use innovation to accomplish goals?

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How innovation is spread throughout a company? and getting people to comply?

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What innovation theories Bord Na Mona use and how?

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New renewable energies for the future? and which renewable energy is best positioned to be replace the fast evaporating oil supply?

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New innovations to deal with the growing problem of waste management?

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What are the main causes and challenges to tackle climate changes? And what new ideas can be put in place now and the future to help prevent it?

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With water another concern for this country and with water metres coming in each household has there been new ideas help conserve water usage in houses to keep bills low?

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With rising heating bills for households and many people unable to afford to turn the heat on has there been innovations that can help keep heat in the house? Or more effective ways to heat your home?

I was looking forward and hoping to have most of these questions answered to give me a better understanding of the open innovation model in practice. Also to learn more about the work of Bord Na Mona and the challenges and opportunities they face in the future.

What are the key things which you learnt from this session?

I learnt Bord Na Mona uses the description that innovation is “Simply the process of generating new ideas and using them to replace what is already in the marketplace with something that works better or lasts longer or is more appealing to a wider spectrum of customers or a target niche, so as to increase market share” and “It is about creating or retaining a customer” and “Innovation is the creation of value for stakeholders” with empathises on the market, customer and value. I also learnt some valuable mis-conceptions about innovation that: 

R&D is the conversion of money to knowledge

Innovation is the conversion of knowledge to money. 

Creativity is coming up with ideas Innovation is bringing ideas to life

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Invention is creation of a new concept Innovation is commercialising that concept

Dr. Henry also talked about how he structured Bord Na Mona so it was capable of innovation. He used an open innovation ecosystem, innovation cycle and horizons 1, 2 and 3. The open innovation system let people from inside and outside the organisation put ideas forwards to be considered and filter out the good ideas using the innovation cycle. Internally they had an internal “Think Hub” where employees can put forward ideas. People from the public can also email ideas to them. They also work with other companies, entrepreneurs, universities, Institutes of Technology and competences centres to have open innovation in Bord Na Mona. The innovation centre he heads is at the centre of the company and spreads to all other departments.

Dr. Henry talked about the 3 horizons he categorises innovations into. Horizon 1 (The Operators) which is the current cash generative business activities. Innovation is centred on mastering the basic and incremental improvement. The duration is now-1 year and is 20% of the business they do. 50% of the business is in Horizon 2 (The Builders) which is new business activities which will generate cash in the future. Innovation is centred around raising the bar and duration is 1-2 years. Horizon 3 ( The Visionaries) is for future business activities which will shape tomorrow’s world. Innovation is centred on changing the game. The duration is 2 years plus and 30% of the business is here. The higher up the horizon you go the more time spent and risk but greater profit. 90% of spend is in horizons 2 and 3

I learnt some of the examples that have come out of the open innovation model and how it worked. I learnt of a product called the HBFR which goes under sinks and can take waste water from our house and use it for other jobs like flushing the toilet. It could save up to 30% of water usage. It was a horizon 3 product and is still waiting approval for use in the EU. That in the future 35% of our electric grid could be from wind power. 20% of energy in their Sligo power plant comes from biomass energy. This examples gave light to that there is a push to new renewable energies and that new innovations can save us money and help the environment and will continue to produce more through the open innovation.

List some market opportunities which you have identified from this presentation.

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1 kw household turbines which you self install on the roof of your house can save up to €475 a year off your electricity bill. The problem is they cost around €4,000 for the once off purchase. So it could take anywhere upwards of 8 years to see you getting money back on your investment. My proposal would be people could start saving money straight away. I would sell the customers the product and then they would have to pay monthly instalments instead of paying all upfront. They would be tied to a contract till they pay the full amount but each year the repayments on the turbine will be less than the

savings made by them. So they are seeing a return on the turbine already. It may be a small return at the start but will rise once they have paid it all off. 

There could be an opportunity to have places where people could bring their garbage, wood, waste, plants and other material that can to used to produce Biofuel. The biomass station could have the infrastructure necessary for the biochemical conversion to take place. If possible the Brown Bins each household gets could be used for biomass energy instead of composting and pass the savings onto the customer energy bills as incentive.

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With rising energy cost and people using fires as a cheaper alternative to turning the heat on. There would be a market for cheaper fuel supplies for the fire. There could be a product which condenses used paper into a briquette form so it lasts longer.

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A website which guarantees to get you the cheapest electricity and gas bill each month. You give them your information and they will manage your bill and make sure you get the cheapest bill each month by changing your supplier for you each month if necessary and not entering long contracts. They do all the work and you get the lowest price.

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With water charges coming into place there are several market opportunities for new products for water conservation. A product which collects rainwater and puts it in the storage tank in the house or even looking future ahead one which could filter the water to make sure its drinkable.

Present do some preliminary secondary research (citing references) justifying the potential of one of the opportunities you have identified.

The opportunity I see which has the most market potential is a product which collects rainwater and transfers it to the water storage tank or filter it to make it safe for drinking. With water metres proposed to be installed in all houses in Ireland by 2013 and charges per

how much each household uses, people will learn to be more conservative with their water supply. Before thinking about this opportunity I had never heard of anyone with water conservation products in their house, why would they when it is free no matter how much you use. A lot more people will be looking into it in the coming years when they begin to get charged for it. I think there will be a big market for water conservation systems in the future.

About 50% of our water usage is drinking water and the other 50% comes from washing machines, bathrooms, and gardens. Straight away with little hassle people could be collecting the 50% that is not drinking water from rain water. With average rainfall in the Dublin area 900mm and can go upwards to about 2000mm in other parts of the country. An adult in Ireland use on average a 150 litres of water a day. 9 litres a minute in the shower, between 813 litres per flush of the toilet and 5 litres per washing machine load. You can use collected rainwater for all these tasks. By using a tool online and Google maps I determined the size of the roof on my house which was 56.1msqed and the amount of rainfall in my area is about 1000mm I could gather 56,000 litres of water a year. For another example you could relate to I did DCU Business School building. It is 1840msqed with average rainfall of 700mm per year that’s a possible collection of 1,288,560 litres of water a year. With the chargers for water usage coming in and the amount that could be saved through water conservation systems there is going to be huge market opportunities. There are several methods for rainwater harvesting on the market at the minute, some as simple as a bucket outside to very complex and expensive methods. I would propose an inexpensive efficient system for the mass market. It would consist of around a 5,000 litre plastic cistern which would be placed in your garden and could be underground. Plastic pipes to connect it to the buildings water supply and a pump to get the water into the building. It would also consist of sterilisers and filters to make sure the water is at a certain quality. Also need a backward prevention device so the water doesn’t mix with the drinking water. This is just a basic model which would need approval and more features added to secure the safety of the water. The rainwater would be collected from the roof in the drains, go down through drainpipes, in the cistern in the gardens where it is stored it could also use the current cistern in the attic. The water is then pumped into the building through filters and sterilised to an approved standard and then pumped to where it is need, flushing the toilet, showering, and washing machine etc. through some rough figures the parts would cost round a €1,000.

The opportunity would be to work with a person with expertise in the construction industry to help develop this product. There are already competitors in this market, we would try to gain competitive advantage on price and also have a strong marketing campaign to let consumers now of the possible money saving opportunity. We could then sub-contract the installation of the product to trained professionals. It wouldn’t be the first time anyone has thought of a product like this, but with entering the market at the right time, with a reasonably priced efficient product with a strong marketing campaign it has a chance of being a success. I’m not sure how much could be saved because there aren’t official figures for water charges. With a possible 50% of the total bill could come from rainwater it could be a few hundred euro a year so the system would repay itself and be environmentally friendly. The opportunities don’t stop at the rainwater harvesting system. Other products could be intergraded into the systems like the HFBR product Dr. Henry talked about. Also in time with changed regulations and improved filtration and sterilising devices even drinking water could come from rainwater. Drinking rainwater can cause gastrointestinal illness in a study by (Shelly Rodrigo, PhD, Martha Sinclair, PhD, Andrew Forbes, PhD, David Cunliffe, PhD, and Karin Leder, PhD) 41.7% experienced gastrointestinal illness. There is still a way to go for it to be safe to drink.

Any other comments or personal reflections on what you have learned?

The talk was interesting to learn about the open-innovation model been used in an Irish company that you wouldn’t expect to be innovative. I learnt that they are innovative and that they have my new ideas and products. It made me look into the huge market of what energy is best suitable to replace oil and other problems that the world is facing like global warming and water shortage and what market opportunities are there. I learnt how you would go about implementing an open innovation model in a company and getting all other departments on board as well as external organisations and people. Overall the talk was very useful and insightful.

Bibliography: Crawford,E, Lawson, E (2009),HOW TO DESIGN DECENTRALIZED RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEMS.,PM Engineer; Aug2009, Vol. 15 Issue 8, p14-18, 4p, Available From: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=29&hid=106&sid=32364161-d8e4-4df6-b8eeth 27c988f9f435%40sessionmgr114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=44234135, [Last Accessed: 9 Dec 2011]. Kingpsan Water Company (2011),Kingspan Water offer rainwater harvesting expertise at Ecobuild 2011.,Builders Merchants Journal, Jan2011, p38-39, 2p, Available From: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=24&hid=106&sid=32364161d8e44df6b8ee27c988f9f435%40sessionmgr114& th bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=59860638, [Last Accessed 9 Dec 2011]. Rodrigo ,S, Sinclair,M, Forbes,A, Cunliffe,D, Leder, K(2011), Drinking Rainwater: A Double-Blinded, Randomized Controlled Study of Water Treatment Filters and Gastroenteritis Incidence. American Journal of Public Health; May2011, Vol. 101 Issue 5, p842-847, 6p, Available From: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=17&hid=106&sid=32364161-d8e4-4df6b8ee-27c988f9f435%40sessionmgr114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=60729855, [Last th Accessed: 9 Dec 2011]. WindTurbines.ie (2011). Guideline Prices. Available:http://www.windturbines.ie/domestic/ordering.asp#order, [Last accessed 2nd Nov 2011]. Sheahan, F. McDonagh, P. (2010). Water meter roll-out to take three years. Available: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/water-meter-rollout-to-take-three-years-2252142.html. [Last Accessed: 2nd Nov 2011]. O'Brien, T. (2011). Water charges 'will aid conservation'. Available: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0601/breaking3.html. [Last Accessed: 2nd Nov 2011. Save The Rain, (2011), Calculate Water Productivity.... Available From: http://www.save-the-rain.com/world-bank/. [Last accessed 2nd Nov 2011]. Errson, O. (2006). Rainwater Harvesting and Purification System. Available From: http://www.harvestingwater.com/rainwatr.htm. [Last accessed 2nd Nov 2011].

Speaker: Helen King, Senior Business Analyst, An Bord Bia. Topic: Consumer Focused Research and Innovation – The Case of the Irish Food and Drink Industry.

What do you want to learn from this session?

There were many things I wanted to learn from this session. It was a great opportunity to see the challenges facing the Irish food and drink industry, which is a big industry in Ireland. Also to see the new trends emerging to be the future of food and drink. The main questions I wanted to know answers to where. 

How much more price sensitive are consumers now in recessionary times?

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Should high sugar foods be taxed with then incentives on healthy food?

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What is being done to help fight the growing over weight problems?

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What are the biggest new world markets for Irish food and drink exports and barriers against them?

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Are there any incentives in place to help family’s eat well for less?

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What are the biggest trends that will shape the food and drink industry in the future?

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What new innovations can help produce quality food a cheaper prices?

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What are the major challenges facing the Irish food and drink industry and how can they overcome them?

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Where is the most time and money being spent in researching new ideas for food and drink?

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Do you think GM foods will be the norm in the future with the growing population and possibly food shortage?

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In the future will there be just a pill we take for our meals our will there be enough food supply for the whole world?

There were many questions I wanted answered and was looking forward to seeing what Helen King had to say about the Irish food and drink industry from her expertise working at Bord Bia. It is a very interesting sector with all of us needing food and drink to live and also

with food and drink being the main focus on many social activities and people getting enjoyment from what they eat and drink.

What are the key things which you have learned from session?

I learnt many things about the Irish food and drink industry in this session. A lot of the questions I wanted answered were and I got a great insight into the emerging trends and challenges facing the Irish food and drinks industry in the coming years. The main topics I learnt were: 

That there will be a move towards buying food from where people know it came from and can trust. They will want to know the source, the producer and anywhere the food was before it got to them. There will be a shift towards buying local.

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There will be a new trend of urban farms. They could be in skyscraper buildings suitable for growing crops. This will be due to the shortage of food as there is a rapidly growing population. Ireland should keep its green and good quality image it has. With non-industrialised, individual farmers who can demand a premium price.

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There will be a shift back from fast quick and easy dinners back to preparing healthy good quality family dinners. This is due to growing health concerns of mothers for their children and wanting to know what they eat and what’s best for them.

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There will be a growth in food supplements but not to the extent of taking a tablet for each meal for the reason people getting enjoyment from eating. Also with and aging population they will take supplements for health and energy reasons.

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There will be a need for biotechnology to help food production. This can make crops disease resistance, last longer, grow in different climates, grow faster and bigger and it won’t just be GM. GM food are already acceptable in US with resistance from EU. They will be widespread in 20 years. They are already in EU in feeds for animals and in some ingredients in foods products if they come from America and other countries as it’s hard to trace.

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There will also be a need to find substitute proteins. With China and India with huge and growing populations now starting to eat meat and dairy more there will be a shortage in the future. We need to find a way to produce more or find alternatives. It was great to hear about the shocking challenges the world is facing in the foods and drinks industry. There are still many questions to be answered which will lead to market opportunities in this sector in the future. It is industries were Ireland is strong and with the work of Bord Bia hopefully be in a good position in the future.

List some market opportunities which you have identified from this presentation. After listening to Helen King’s presentation I could see the challenges facing the food and drink opportunity in the future. With challenges come opportunities, so I started to think what are the biggest opportunities in this market. I came up with a few market opportunities which could help solve the challenges facing the food and drinks industry: 

With the internet and the growing uses of smartphones and the shift towards consumers wanting to know where their food comes from and from fast dinners to preparing a good meal. On each food/drink product there could be a number code or a QR code, When you enter the number onto a website on the internet or scan the QR code with your smartphone it brings up a map and shows you exactly where all the ingredients and packaging on that product came from, where they were manufactured, and how they got to the retailer. It will be a complete map of the supply chain and how long it took. It could also have pictures of each ingredient at its source. It would need help from the government to be introduced on all products or could be a competitive advantage if some products decided to introduce it.

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With a possible food shortage in the future there will be a need for GM food stuffs. I would propose to set up a small supermarket or supplier at first just selling GM foods. I would provide information to show how safe each product is and what is genetically modified with each one. I will also show results of tests that show the affects and

benefits of each GM product. Hopefully there will be then a greater acceptance of GM foods when people actually know the information and facts behind them not just their perception. The main objective would be to show there is no health risk from GM foods and getting allowance from the EU. Then I could show customers all the benefits of GM foods and be in a strong position to then expand or supply other supermarkets with GM foods when they are widely accepted. 

With supplements to grow in the future and an aging population looking for supplements for health and energy, there is also a need for more protein with a possible shortage of meat. People also enjoy eating and don’t just want to take a tablet so I thought a concentred health shot of natural ingredients like fruit and vegetables along with added nutrients to have all the benefits of a tablet but also the enjoyment of taste.

Present some preliminary secondary research (citing references) justifying the potential of one of the opportunities you have identified.

The opportunity which I have chosen is the natural concentrated fruit/vegetable shot with added nutrients. I think this has the most potential as Helen King said there will be a growing market for supplements and with aging population with a need for health and energy supplements this could be an alternative to a tablet. Also with the need for more protein with the possible shortage of meat in the future this could have added protein to solve that problem. There is also a shift towards customers wanted to know where their food is from and back to healthy eating, this natural product would meet those requirements. The main advantage of this shot would be the enjoyment and taste of drinking something rather than taking a tablet and getting the same nutrient.

The product would compete in several different markets, the juice and smoothie, energy shots like Red Bull concentred shot, normal energy drinks like Red Bull, Monster, healthy drinks like Actimel and Yakult and all supplements like multivitamins. There would be a huge market opportunity. My product with position itself as a healthy concentrated shot made from

fresh fruit and vegetables and can provide a range of benefits. In one product can provide energy and mind boost, added multivitamins and other nutrient and health benefits. This would take the fresh natural part from the juice, smoothie range, the energy and mind boost from the energy shots and Red Bull but this product will be good for you and the added nutrients and vitamins from the Actimel and supplements all into one product.

The smoothie industry in the UK four years ago was worth £210 million in 2011 it is down a third to £143 million. According to (Toluna/Mintel report 2011) this is due to the recession and smoothies been too expensive and also their brand equity and not been as natural or healthy as they say. With an Innocent smoothie at about €2.00 for 250ml I would recommend the shot be a 100ml and be priced between 50 cent and €1.00 depending on ingredients. This would be a cheap alternative but also have more nutrients than a smoothie it would have natural concentred fruit but also added non-natural vitamins and nutrients so I would be careful not to wrongly market it. Also in the (Toluna/Mintel report 2011) states that the main drinkers of smoothies are 18-24 34% and 25-34 31% with 65% females and 35% males. It will be important to target the aging population who now only account for 8% 50-64 and only 2% of over 65s of the smoothie market. This figures which can’t be exactly used for my product idea, it still gives a good idea of the market opportunities for this product.

Mintel also predict a 50% increase in sports and energy drinks by 2015 and monster and red bull make up 72% in this sector. With the criticism of energy drinks containing too much sugar and caffeine and in generally being bad for you. This product could provide a health energy boost by using natural nutrients that boost energy that are good for you. This could be it competitive advantage over these energy drinks.

The (Nutraceuticals World, Dec2010) says that eating healthy foods can give you more vitamins and nutrients than supplements so by combing the two you could get the best of both. With the taste of eating and nutrients of eating fruit and veg plus added nutrients there could be a market for this product. To give an idea of the size of the supplement market was worth $53.4 billion in 2007. This is a huge market even 0.01% of that market is 5.4 million. There is huge market opportunity for this product, personally and through research I haven’t seen a product exactly like my idea and I do think there is a gap in the market for this product but only if it can be produce with the right ingredients with desired outcome for the right price for customers.

To make this product a success it will need the right ingredients. I would use super-fruits such as blueberry, cranberry, mango, pomegranate and grapes as these fruits are tested to have the greatest health benefits and energy. There would be a mixture of fruit in each shot. This fruits can help fight cancer, brain disease, Alzheimer, neurodegeneration, diabetes and can also be used as antioxidants and antibiotic. Super fruit industry is targeted to hit 10 billion globally in 2011. To add extra vitamins wouldn’t be too expensive as you can get “Super One Formula” multivitamins in “Holland and Barrett’s” for €13.79 for 100 this tablet crushed up and put in the shot could add all the benefits the tablet could(1), that’s just an example of the nutrients that could be added at what cost. With the fruits and vitamins there are also other benefits like boosting the immune system and metabolism, improved digestion, high fibre and lower cholesterol. Fruits which are ripened in the sun are full of starch which provides carbohydrates for energy in humans. Energy drinks also have many health risks like high blood pressure, increased heart rate but also the mix of ingredients can lead to dehydration and if the body is dehydrated by 1% performance can drop by 10% so actually having an adverse effect on enhancing performance. Taurine, Ginseng and Guarana seed are natural sources that can help boost mental and physical energy they are in most energy drinks but in this shot they wouldn’t be mixed with high level of sugar and caffeine. Along with the natural benefits of the fruits and vegetables and then the energy in the added nutrients it could compete with energy drinks as a healthy energy boost alternative. The shot would come in a

(Fig 2) Package like this in 100ml size. There is also the opportunity to make bigger sizes but will then be in a very competitive market and will have to find a unique advantage. Also go into different ranges of shots like protein enchased or shots that are for specific health problems to target the aging population e.g help lower cholesterol, fight against diabetes or help vision. The main product would have a bit off all in one to help target all markets with one great product.

Any other comments or personal reflections on what you have learned?

I enjoyed listening to the presentation and the challenges facing the food and drink industry. Food and drink is something we take for granted and in the future there could be shortage of the food we eat every day now. There are also huge opportunities to fill these gaps in the market. With looking at the energy drink market I can see the negative effects of them and also how you can get the same healthier benefits by just eating the right foods and supplements. It was a very insightful look into the food and drinks industry and it’s an industry which we all enjoy. It was great to see the grave challenges and will be an industry I will now look more closely at to spot opportunities in the future.

Bibliography:

American Marketing Association (2007), Smoothie selling, Journal of Marketing Management, Mar/Apr2007, Vol. 16 Issue 2, p7-7, 1/4p. Available from:http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=573f0ceae309-4666-9466-9303cb117a16%40sessionmgr115&vid=8&hid=106, [Last Accessed: 30th Nov 2011]. Glaxosmithkline (2011) Focus on soft drinks, Soft Landings, Forecourt Trader, Oct2011, p29-36, 6p, Available from: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=573f0cea-e309-4666-94669303cb117a16%40sessionmgr115&vid=13&hid=106, [Last Accessed 30th Nov 2011]. Harvard Medical School (2010), Harvard Report Says Foods Offer More Nutrients than Supplements, Nutraceuticals World, Dec2010, Vol. 13 Issue 10, p18-18, 1/5p, Available from: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=18&hid=106&sid=573f0cea-e309-466694669303cb117a16%40sessionmgr115&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=5581795 2, [Last Accessed: 30th Nov 2011] Zambetti, P, (2008) Global Market Growth for Dietary Supplements, Available from: http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/articles/2008/04/global-market-growth-for-dietary-supplements.aspx [Last Accessed: 29th Nov 2011] The Super fruit Table (2011), Antioxidants and impact on key health areas, Available From: http://www.superfruits.org/benefits/, [Last Accessed 29 th Nov 2011]. McNally A, (2007), Superfoods Market set to double by 2011, Available from: http://www.nutraingredients.com/Consumer-Trends/Superfoods-market-set-to-double-by-2011 , [Last Accessed: 29th Nov 2011] Lowe, R.M (2010), Popular energy drinks have hidden risks, Available from: http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USTRE6AE0BU20101115, [Last Accessed: 29th Nov 2011].

(1)http://www.hollandandbarrett.ie/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=204&prodid=612&cid=39&sid=0.

(Fig 2) Available from: http://www.google.ie/imgres?q=capri+sun+packaging&um=1&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&tbnid=Btsmt PSLXDWJ0M:&imgrefurl=http://1800recycling.com/2010/04/pouchsmart-clever-evolution-beveragepackaging/&docid=vLjFC-4oHpuIAM&imgurl=http://1800recycling.com/wpcontent/uploads/2010/04/PouchSmart.jpg&w=325&h=350&ei=OTK5TqO4GISXhQeC8pTHBw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=7 80&vpy=322&dur=3043&hovh=233&hovw=216&tx=91&ty=151&sig=106470029911824781535&page=6&tbnh=134&tbn w=124&start=102&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:102

Speaker: Anthony Mccauley, Head of Innovation, Fujistu. Topic: Fujitsu’s approach to Human Centric Computing.

What do you want to learn from this session? Again this was another guest speaker I was looking forward to hearing from. I hadn’t heard of the term Human Centric Computing (HCC) before so I was very interesting to learn what it is about. Before the lecture I did some research on the topic to comprise some questions I would like answered in the lecture. From research I found that HCC is basically how computers interact with our lives and how it is increasing. It also looks a future trends of computers interaction with humans. The main learnings I would have liked to come away from this lecture with were: 

What new trends will we see in HCC in the short and long term?

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What markets will we see HCC in the most?

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Will it eventually become every step of our lives, every call we make every button we press be monitored back to a computer for use to see. Our whole life recorded and stored online.

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How long before computers set personalised diets and medicine for each person and monitor your health. A computer can be your doctor?

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Will money and cards eventually become obsolete with the introduction of smartphone swipe and pay?

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Will it become a totally computerised knowledge society, where your smartphone is all your cards, keys, id, can be scanned on anything for information. Your phone can control your life.

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What will be the trends to look out for which will most affect marketers in the future.

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How much longer can computers get faster and smaller till the limit is reached?

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Will tablets and smartphones take over from the laptop like from PC to laptop or is there still a need for laptops? Or will it be hybrid devices.

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How will technology most affect my life in the future , in the home, work, health, lifestyle etc.

There was a lot I wanted to learn from the guest speaker Anthony Mccauley. It was topic I was really interested in and Anthony could give us a great insight with his experience working for Fujitsu as “Head of Innovation”.

What are the key things which you learned from this session?

There was a lot which I learned from this session. Anthony gave us great information about future trends and which were going to have the biggest impact. The lecture was very interesting and I learned a lot from it. Some of the main leanings I got from this session were: 

Social media is now number one in how people communicate with each other even bigger than calling or texting. Businesses need to be on social media, it’s a place where they can connect with customers but now also increasing even sell through social media.

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Marketing 3.0 is the next step. Which is all about understanding what a customer wants from a product. There will more personalised products and service e.g healthcare. Customer will have strong knowledge of products “The Smart Consumer”, They will research online getting reviews and opinions on sites like boards.ie which is called “Sediment Analysis”.

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“The Cloud” is the future. There will be the public and private cloud, public cloud will be like those of “Google Docs” where you can store any information. The private cloud will be for companies with sensitive information wanting to insure it is safe in the cloud. Most computers information will be stored in the cloud like software packages and any information you have. It will be cheaper and can be accessed from any computer. BYOD to work will also take over with then adding applications from the cloud. No need to have software installed on your computer because of SAAS, there will also be PAAS and IAAS.

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Smartphones will be very big along with apps. We are currently seeing an increase in smartphones users and app downloads. There is almost an app for everything an always enhancing and increasing. Smartphones will be used for everything like a computer in your hand. They will also challenge laptops to become the most used device for searching the web, not long until buying products with an app on your phone is widely available.

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There will be huge changes in tech making them smaller and faster. There is already so much information it cripples the infrastructure systems. 4G broadband will be next offer higher speeds for mobile devices. There’s a chip with 1,000 processors on it nearly made for increased computer speed and power currently a chip has only 48 processors. There will be huge datacentres to hold all the information “in the cloud”.

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Crowdsurfing will be a new way of doing business. Putting tenders for projects online and having people from around the world working at home on the one project. People can apply to do certain project and the company’s pick who they want. Each person does they’re part and it’s put together. A new way to outsource projects.

There are loads of emerging trends that will change the way we live and do business. I’ve learnt companies will have to be aware of new trends and actively respond. Most of these trends will affect me when I’m in the work place or even my everyday life. It was great to get a look into future technologies with some with great knowledge from work as “Head of Innovation” at Fujistu. I will be keeping a close eye on the areas Anthony mention and looking forward to see how they develop.

List some of the market opportunities which you have identified from this presentation.

There are many market opportunities I could think of after attending this presentation. Many of them were unrealistic to be an opportunity today so I kept to ideas which could be implemented tomorrow. It’s hard to find unique ideas in the technology market with massive companies which huge number of employees looking out for the next big technologies. Along

with this there are many tech enthusiasts posting ideas online everyday. Here are some of the market opportunities I identified from this presentation. 

A location and purchase history based app which tracks your daily movements and also your purchase history of what you bought through your smartphone by using its scanning app instead of using cash or cards. The app could then suggest other products in nearby areas and give you their price and special offers. Example would be if you went to Starbucks coffee shop and bought a coffee for 2 euro. The app would tell you of all the other coffee shops nearby and their prices and special offers for the next time you’re in that area. It could compare whole shopping lists if you did your shopping in Tesco it would tell you the price of every item you bought in other nearby supermarkets like Dunnes Stores and can compare the prices. The app would cost 79 cent but can save people money so they would be willing to buy.

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Application for Facebook where you can buy through the site. There are already a few apps which can do this. The difference would be this would let your friends view any previous items you browsed, recommend products for friends, leave reviews after purchases. All of this information would only be seen within the app and wouldn’t show on the main news home feed so it wouldn’t clog up other friend’s Facebook. If friends wanted to get information they could go to the application where they could see what all their friends where looking at, what they recommend and reviews after they purchases. Business would sell through the app and get charged a small commission on each sale, but they also have access to all the information of the consumers.

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Crowdsurfing website for college students. Businesses would post up projects they would like done. Any college interested in doing the project can apply and the business can pick which college and how many groups they want to partake. The business would supply the resources needed. A lecture can get their class of students to do the project as part of continuous assessment for a module. The business can then pick the best one and give the winning team a prize. This would give college students great industry experience as part of their course and also help the business in an area where they lack skills. A business could get a group of Computer

Applications students to design them a website, or Marketing students to do them a marketing plan. The website would charge a fee to business for posting each project. 

An app which works across all mobile device platforms and shows the location of each person. Friends can see exactly where each other are at any times, they can also update where they are going, with who and if it is open to others to join. Users have the option to turn their location on or off. An example would be if I was in the library and I would stay I’m studying it could even located my exact location in the building (which Google Maps is soon bringing in) so anyone can come talk to me if needed. It would make it easier to meet up with friends and find out what others are doing. The main revenue would could from advertisements and business who could push offers to users if they are nearby.

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A business which captures customers comments online. It would be like customer research. The business would get a request from another business to look and see what’s been said about one of its products. We could then go search several places online like blogs, forums, blogs, communities, and social networks to see what people are saying about that product or service. Then compile a SWOT analysis and report from the information for the company to see. Its called “Sediment Analysis”.

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A very powerful smartphone which could then be attached to a tablet screen and also a keyboard added. The smartphone would be where all the processors and memory are, the tablet screen would just attach on for a bigger view and a keyboard to make it easier to type. The smartphone would store everything you need on it and with the attachments make it the only device need.

Present some preliminary secondary research (citing references) justifying the potential of one of the opportunities you have identified.

The market opportunity I thought had the greatest potential is customer research/ sediment analysis. This is the idea where my business would get request from other companies to do

research online across all online platforms to see what is being said about their product. I would search through social networks, review and rating sites, blogs and microblogging, forums and boards. I could then see what a wide range of people are saying about a company’s product and provide them with the feedback I found.

I would start of in the Irish market offering this service. It would link market research and social media together and providing information of what people are saying about my client’s products in places you would never look. It would be reliable information as it is been taking from several different mediums to back up each comment. 72% of Irish household have access to the internet with 57% of people look for information about goods online, so it is important to know what it is been said about your good so you can react appropriately. 20% of Irish people share content online, this could be about your product. According to (AMAS report issue 22) Ireland ranks highest in the EU for divulging information about what we do, where we go and what we like. The information is out there but the internet is a jungle of information so there is an opportunity there to gather all the info and put it into an easy to read and understandable report for companies to use. “84.2% of all Irish Internet users used social networks in December 2010”(Comscore) there are 1,942,980 Irish profiles on Facebook with 900 been set up everyday and 47% of users logging in daily. There is a huge amount of information which can be got from Facebook. Youtube has 1.3 million regular Irish users. 385,000 people in Ireland have a Twitter account and 71% of journalist use Twitter as a new source so it’s a great place to get to get any news about certain companies.

Blogs are another place in Ireland where there is huge amount of information. There are several blogs for almost every subject where related information is posted. You can look and see what popular bloggers who have a huge reach are saying about your company and products. I looked at the “Irish Blog Awards” to see some of the top blogs sites in each category were. The Best Popculture blog: m0vie.wordpress.com, Best Food/Drink Blog: thedailyspud.com, Best Lifestyle: stitchesfabricandsoul.com and Best Technology Blog/Blogger: conoroneill.net, www.irishblogs.ie/ is another blog which has post from hundreds of different bloggers. People go on to these blogs everyday and value these bloggers options so its important to know what they are saying and the effect it can have on

consumers. There are hundreds of different Blogs on different topics it is important to look at the most popular blogs which have the biggest reach and respect to see what people are saying about your company/product.

Boards and forums are also a place with huge amounts of information on every topic. There are boards and forums that cover every topic like www.forums.ie and www.boards.ie. These are very popular sites with boards.ie ranked 17 in Ireland by “Alexa” and forums.ie being less popular. Baords.ie has information about every topic and is updated daily by its users. It is a very important place to look for information that people are saying about your company and products.

Finding reviews and ratings about your products online are vital for companies so they know what customers think about them. They can also find out what features they like and dislike and even recommendation by customers which can improve their product. There are thousands of review and rating sites. There is CNET, Bizrate, Epinions, entertainment.ie, bleep.ie, techcentral.ie, siliconrepublic.ie and many more. Those sites are mainly reviews by experts and what they think of each product. They again have huge followings and customer can make decisions by what they say so its important to listen to them. Users on these sites can also submit their own reviews. You can then get customer reviews online, online marketplaces Amazon and EBay or on “Which” that gives unbiased advice and reports.

Those are the main online communications that people would post information on products or look for advice when buying. For my business I would compile a comprehensive list of all of this sites the above are just examples of a few. For each specific company I can chose which sites would have the most information for their product and use them. The companies could also choice a low, medium or high search which would increase the price but we would cover more sites to get information for them. For blogs, boards, forums and review websites I can search through each and look for the keyword I’m looking for e.g “Three mobile network”. So I could use my expertise and know which sites could possibly have information about “Three”. I can then take all the information I find and see which point are over curing and give ranks to each one e.g “Three is good value” ranked high because it was said a lot but “I don’t like Three” was said a lot less so is ranked lower. Keyword searching is how I would find the information on those sites and also expertise of knowing where to look.

For social networks it not as easy to find what people are saying because a lot have their profiles block and only friends can view what they say and like on Facebook. On Facebook you could search for pages made about your company or even create a page for the client and see interaction with customers or view their page if they have one set up. For my company I would set up a business page which people could like, I would tell people the page is for doing research on customers and if you like you have a chance to get work and be paid for doing interviews. I would also give away free prizes at the start to attract people. Once I have members I can then see what they are saying and then search through them for relevant information for my clients. I could also interview people (on Skype) who mention a client’s product to get more information for my clients. On Twitter there is an advanced search where you can type in any word and see all the tweets containing that word which I could then go through and have findings for my clients. On YouTube users leaves comments on videos so I can find relevant videos for each company and their product and see what users are commenting on each video. People do video reviews of products where I could also get information from and see do users agree in the comments. Geo-tagging is becoming bigger with more people checking-in on Foursquare and Facebook the top check-ins in Ireland where Dublin Airport 7,484, Aviva Stadium 5,570 and the o2 2,468 where all in the top 10. Searching certain areas and seeing where they check-in, I could then contact people through Facebook and get their options on the place they checked-in thought Facebook or an interview on Skype.

As we can see from the above statistics more consumers are going online to do research on products before buying. They use several different online mediums to get as much information as possible before making their final purchase. As (Griffin and Hauser 1993) put it “understanding the sentiment and “voice of the consumer” VOC, with 57% of Irish consumers researching goods online it is the place to hear the VOC. “Analysis of market structure is a key step in the design and development of new products as well as the repositioning of existing products” (Urban and Hauser 1993), The information companies collect online can help achieve this goal. Finding information online is hard, you have to know where to look and even search engines like Google don’t always find all the information you need. You can search for your product but you won’t see all the user

comments about it. “The Semantic Web (Berners-Lee 1998; Berners-Lee et al.2006) is to describe Web resources in a way that allows machines to understand and process them. The main objectives of the Semantic Web can be summarized as follows: “making information automatically available to software agents, integrating contents from different sources, optimizing search and enabling trust on the Web”. With the semantic web it would be possible to search a word and see everywhere it turns up, but at the moment this is just a concept and its not sure if it is completely possible as computers don’t have a mind of themselves they just process numbers and need a human to control them.

I think there is a market opportunity for customer research in Ireland, with doing some quick research I found a few other companies offering similar services. Most of them are all using just software to find information and have a range of other services. I would just concentre on customer research/sediment research and specialise in that to become market leader as I think it will be a big area in the future. It would link into web 3.0 which Anthony was talking about and understanding consumers. The idea at first would be to manually find the information but could incorporate text-mining software on each site so we could constantly keep track of when certain words are said. The software could easily find keywords on the site we apply it to and make it easier to find the history of every time the word was said and also update with new comments. SAS is one company that provide this software and also “Radian6” tracks information on social media sites. I think my competitive advantage would be being a small company and gathering a key group of customers and being able to work closely with them and not just use software. I think there is an opportunity for this idea to gather information about products and services online and compile a report which is easy to read and understand, the report could also have a SWOT for the product, and a diagram of certain features and how they are ranked based on the information found online. Once the company was set up it would do research of what sites they need to be looking at and grow in expertise each day and compile a defiant list of websites where they could look for information and find it easily, where it would take other companies weeks to find if they could at all. Instead of just using software to find information clients will get a more comprehensive report by a human and be more reliable and knowledgeable than software in the area. We can understand what we are seeing while software is been told what to do. With the mixture of both and being more human focused I think there is an opportunity for this business.

Bibliography: New World Blog (2011), Irish Social Media Statistics, Available from: http://blog.neworld.com/2011/irishsocial-media-statistics-may-2011/, [Last Accessed: 2nd Dec 2011]. Blog Awards (2011), 2011 Irish blog awards winners, Available from: http://awards.ie/blogawards/ , [Last Accessed: 2nd Dec 2011] Vandelay Design (2007), 233 Social Networking Sites for Marketing Your Blog, Available from: http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/social-media/list-social-networks/ , [Last Accessed: 2nd Dec 2011]. Traffikd (2011), List of Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Available from: http://traffikd.com/socialmedia-websites/ , [Last Accessed: 2nd Dec 2011]. Ningthoujam, P, 80+ Online Communities for Bloggers , Available From: http://mashable.com/2007/09/28/online-communities/, [Last Accessed: 2nd Dec 2011]. Philips, M, 20 User Review Websites Critical to Small Business, Available From: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2011/03/25/20-user-review-websites-critical-tosmall-business.aspx, [Last Accessed: 2nd Dec 2011]. Paternoster, L, Moving beyond transactional customer relationships with social media, Available From: http://www.instituteofcustomerservice.com/1711-7381/Moving-beyond-transactional-customer-relationshipswith-social-media.html , [Last Accessed: 2nd Dec 2011]. Hanselman, A, What Customers Are Saying Online – Are You Listening, Available from: http://thesocialcustomer.com/andyhanselman/37788/what-customers-are-saying-online-are-you-listening, [Last Accessed 2nd Dec 2011]. AMAS (2011), State of the net, issue 22, Available from: http://amas.ie/online-research/state-of-the-net/ , [Last Accessed: 2nd Dec 2011]. Chappuis, B, Gaffey, B, Parvizi, P, (2011), Are your customers becoming digital junkies?, McKinsey Quarterly; 2011, Issue 3, p20-23, 4p, Available from: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=17a53a4ed2164bbaa05042ae2e5e568f%40sessionmgr114&vid=1&hi d=106&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=63526373, [Last Accessed 2 nd Dec 2011]. Lee, T.Y, Bradlow, E.T,(2011), Automated Marketing Research Using Online Customer Reviews, Journal of Marketing Research (JMR); Oct2011, Vol. 48 Issue 5, p881-894, 14p, Available From: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=371cc41d-5ab5-45a0-af2e-

cbd1e18184de%40sessionmgr104&vid=1&hid=106&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth& AN=65250096, [Last Accessed: 2nd Dec 2011]. Torre, I, (2009), Adaptive systems in the era of the semantic and social web, a survey, User Modeling & UserAdapted Interaction; Dec2009, Vol. 19 Issue 5, p433-486, 54p, Available From: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=106&sid=7485c3cc-dd25-4ddb-b593eba15db55b37%40sessionmgr115&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=45391099, [Last Accessed: 2nd Dec 2011].

Speaker: Cathy Orr, Senior Director, International PR, PopCap Games International Ltd.

Topic: How PopCap International Markets its core game brands to the mass market.

What do you want to learn from this session?

There was a lot I wanted to learn from this session. I have played PopCap games before and was interested to hear the story behind the brand. PopCap is one of the leading brands in the casual gaming market and runs across many platforms. I was interested to see how they achieved this. PopCap was also recently taken over by Electronic Arts for $650 million this shows how big the company has become and was very intrigued to see how they grew the brand this big. Some of the main things I wanted to learn from this session were: 

How do PopCap stay ahead of the competition in such a competitive market?

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How did PopCap gained this advantage from the start and what has made them so successful?

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How does PopCap communicates with customers and what are the main mediums it uses?

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How to effectively brand a service only product like a website or game?

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How to get a website/game worldwide recognition with a small marketing budget?

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How to make successful alliances with other companies to benefit your product?

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The key aspects of online branding?

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Brand loyalty and how to keep customer coming back to a website/game when there are so many alternatives?

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How to bring an online product offline for marketing? Not just use online methods to market the product.

There were a lot of areas I wanted to learn about and an area where I had a real interest in. I had played their games before and was interested in learning about an online only business. I was looking forward to the session and hopefully would be able to learn a lot from Cathy Orr

as a senior director and in International PR she would be able to provide us with her knowledge from working a PopCap.

What are the key things which you have learned from this session? I learnt a lot from Cathy’s presentation, it was enjoyable and really insightful. I learnt a lot about branding to a worldwide audience on a small budget and how it can be achieved. She talked about the different communication mediums and techniques to use to successfully brand an online product. Cathy talked about that PopCap aim is to make gamers out of nongamers and that they have had 1.5 billion downloads. That they want to get games to “Anyone,Anytime,Anywhere”. She had five main leanings from her presentation:

1. Consumer Technology: 

Digital media is not easy and can cost as much as traditional media so beware of social media myths and manage expectations of what is expected from social media.

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She talked about in marketing “How everything has changed but noting has” in relation to new methods of communicating with consumers but in the end there are still the same objectives.

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Be creative and fun how you communicate with consumers.

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PopCap created a music video for its “Zombie vs Plants” game which got 9 million views. Not only was this fun as consumers wanted to watch it as it went viral, it also showed the features of the game.

2. Mass marketing must be personal: 

Every business now is using social media and online methods for marketing, its hard to differentiate from other businesses.

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So traditional marketing space is becoming less cluttered so more space than a few years ago to get noticed.

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That a mixture of offline and online is necessary.

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PopCap gave free promotional items to journalists like zombie garden gloves and BBQ aprons.

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They also send out creative invitations to launch parties and flew journalists from around the world to them.

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The journalist would then post pictures and videos of the promotional material and creative invitations they got. They would then be re-posted by others as they were creative and fun and would be viral.

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When its personal people will hopefully remember it more in the clutter marketing space and have positive effects towards your company.

3. Empower customer to celebrate your brand. 

Encourage customers to generate content like pictures and video involving your brand.

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Even use the content that they have made as a marketing tool.

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Have two way communications with customers through social media like Facebook and Twitter and take their information on board.

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The media can also celebrate your brand, its not just big media now there are more freelancers and bloggers.

4. Implementing on and offline tactics: 

Its important to mix both together and not just have on or the other.

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PopCap went to “Gamescom” in Germany the world largest trade fair and event for interactive games and entertainment. It was expensive and cluttered so its hard to get noticed.

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Again have to be creative to get noticed. Bring the online to life and dressed a person up in a Zombie costume and had him dancing and doing funny things at the event to get noticed.

5. Sustained marketing is vital: 

Find out what works and do it again.

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“If you can say it loud enough say it often”. Only 10% of PopCap customers may see one message they send so its important to say it often.

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Need to repeat the message to new customer. PopCap repeated the message to new customers when they launched on the iPhone, iPad, Xbox etc.

They were the main leaning points Cathy pointed out in her presentation. This is how PopCap achieves to reach a global audience on a low budget and how it stays ahead of its competition. A few other things I learned where. 

With a small budget it may be hard to do what you want. Cathy used the technique “What would I do if I had no budget…..” and work back from there.

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Start with the message, what would you want to portrayed and then chose the media you want to use, not the other way around.

It was a very interesting presentation and one which I learnt a lot from and really enjoyed. I hope to use some of this methods I have learnt if the future.

List some of the market opportunities which you have identified from this presentation? 

A viral marketing agency. There are already a few available in Ireland. This would supply props, videos, pictures, interact with customers and even games for companies to put in their apps. It would constantly have new ideas. To get customers it would make some personalised marketing material for companies and give it to them for free in hope of return business. To differentiate from others it would try to be the most creative.

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A Facebook game which interacts with friends. As shown by http://www.takethislollipop.com/ , Facebook can have access to all your

information so why not make a game around that. A group of friends can play and they game gives challenges to each person which they have to perform to go through to the next round. The challenges interact with information from there Facebook page and friends. So they could be asked to post a certain picture on someone’s wall or leave a certain comment on a random friend’s wall. The game choses what to do and to who as it has access to your information. If you don’t do a task your out and last person left wins. The game application would generate money from advertisements 

An idea generation app. Companies post a problem they have, or an area where they want an idea and then users of the app can post their opinions on the area.

They can also design solutions. The company can then pick the winner and give them a cash prize. Revenue would come from a price the company has to play to place each ad. 

A Game that links online and offline together. A group of friends are randomly challenged against another group online. They then have to perform online and offline activities to decide the winner. One example would be they have a game of fantasy football online and a game of AstroTurf football offline whoever has the best combined score wins. The company would charge the customers but would offer the offline activity in the package to hide the cost and also get money from ads on the website.

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A website that encourages user to post content about companies to their site. My website could then show and offer the content to the companies. It would be like crowdsurfing. The users would post to my site and not the companies its about because they want to get money for it. The site would also have a vast array of user generated marketing tools to offer to companies that they would visit. The companies then buy the user generated content, the users get the money with the site taken a commission.

Present some preliminary secondary research (citing references) justifying the potential of one of the opportunities you have identified.

The idea I thought had the most potential is a game that is played online and then after is played offline with the same people. The people play an online and offline activity and there would be a lot of different modes and games. Fig 1 shows the global online gaming market to be worth 18 billion and forecasts it to grow by over 3 billion next year. This combines with a range of offline activities could be very attractive to potential customers.

One of the problems with online gaming is that according to (Mehroof, M and Griffiths, M.D 2010) study “Results demonstrated significant relationships between

online gambling addiction and the traits of aggression, sensation seeking, trait anxiety, state anxiety, and neuroticism”. There is a growing problem with teenagers and young adults becoming addict to online games “99% of boys under 18 and 94% of girls under 18 report playing videogames regularly” and “half a billion people worldwide playing computer and videogames at least an hour a day”. There is a huge market there for this service which would let people play online games but also activities offline which would get people away for the computer screen and interacting in the real world. Another reason people play online gaming is “ to overcome their boredom” (Mehroof, M and Griffiths, M.D 2010) “they also found that Online roleplaying games may allow individuals to take on the role of different characters within a fantasy world and make people feel less socially anxious.” With linking the two, less confident people could play online to get to know people and then connect with them in real life. We spend more than 3 billion hours a week as a plant playing video games so there is a huge market to connect the online gaming world with the offline.

Some of the ideas of the games you would link on and offline with are. A fantasy football league online and an AstroTurf tournament offline. This could be a yearlong event and could be for more groups of friends. First you would register through my website then it would send you to a fantasy football site where there is a league made for all the teams that register. I would form alliances with the sites that supply the games as it would work both ways as I’m supplying them with traffic. After all the teams are registered and submitted an online fantasy team the offline league can start. It would then be weekly offline tournaments were every team has to play each other on an AstroTurf. The teams in a league would be grouped by location for convince. All the info for place times and fixtures as well as weekly scores are kept on my website for the teams to check. According to the (The Social Significance of Sport 2008) Fig 2 we can see the percentage of people who are a member of a sports team or fitness centre in Ireland this would be the main market but also any others who don’t play any sport or fitness. We would be looking at who plays video games and sports or just one or the other and by joining the two we could potentially get people who only do one or the other to try the later. Fig (3) shows why people play sports and relaxing, meeting friends and health and fitness all scored high. For people who always play video games it’s a chance to increase fitness, meet friends and relax. On

the other hand for those who play sports, playing video games they could also meet friends and relax through my website.

With linking the on and offline they could also place wagers and the winner of the combined tournament wins the money, they whole group can chose how much it is and if you don’t agree you don’t have to bet. They could also place weekly bets on beating each other. The website would have an online betting system and the money is transferred from each members accounts.

This is just one example of the kind of on and offline game users could play. Instead of fantasy football there could be an online soccer game like “Jumpers For Goalposts”. Instead of soccer it could be any sports in an online fantasy league or online game followed by playing the sport in real life it could be group activities like tag rugby and a fantasy league of the Heinkein Cup or online kicking game. They could also play on any platform PC, Xbox, Playstation, and mobile. They could have a game of “Call of Duty” online on the Xbox or PS3 and then go paint balling in real life. A racing game online and then go go karting offline there is endless possibilities to link on and offline group activities. There could be games that you bet on or ones just for fun. There are also many online games you can link to the on offline activity.

The website would link with the games websites and fantasy sites to create leagues. Could link with www.miniclip.com for casual online games, the official premier league website for fantasy football, and create specific online servers for online games on Xbox, PlayStation and more hard-core games on PC and Mac. This way you can only allow the specific members in to each game as you are the host. For offline activities I would link with the suppliers of the certain activities and try get special rates as I would be offering repeat business. To generate revenue I would charge customers for the service but the offline activity would be included in the price. The online activities will be free for me to supply as they are free on the sites and with special rates on the offline activities I could offer it a good value price and still make a profit and also revenue from ads on the website.

Aswell as the group activities there would be a section for individuals to play on and offline games. It could be a place to meet one to one with people or individual groups

where no one knows each other. It could connect the two opposite sexes or just a mix group of people who don’t know each other. “Online dating has lost much of its social stigma and is one of the most lucrative forms of paid content on the Internet; it is also one of the few online businesses to continue to profit during the economic recession, with sites like Craigslist, eHarmony, and Match.com reporting a 20%-22% increase in memberships in 2008” (Carpenter, 2008). There are problems with online dating sites, my site would have a meeting place for opposite sexes and would be linked to the main website but would bring you to a different site to separate customers of group activities and individual activities . There are some major problems with online dating sites, uncertainty of who the other person is. “Communication plays a key role in this process as it is through communication that uncertainty is reduced. As such, interpersonal relationships develop among strangers as interactants communicate to reduce their uncertainty and get to know each other by gaining greater knowledge and mutual understanding. Uncertainty leads to information-seeking behaviour, as individuals are motivated to monitor other people’s behaviour in social situations and engage in a variety of strategies to find out more about others, such as covert observation, asking questions, or communicating to encourage others to reveal more about themselves” (Berger, 1979). The same is still true about online dating today. People are also unsure about online dating as it not yet accepted as the social norm and worried about others opinion of them. My sites would let them interact while playing a two person game like puzzle e.g games of chess, action games, sports games etc. They could play any two person games and then talk to each other while playing there would be an option to turn on video chat and also an option to meet up after a few online games, its up the participants. They would get a choice of offline activities which they could go do. Hopefully this website wouldn’t be seen as an online dating but more relaxing environment where people can talk, play games with other people and then meet up if they want, it would be aimed more at younger people aged 18-35. It could also connect with peoples Facebook’s if they needed to verify the other person but would need permission form each person. Participants get randomly put together after they put information about their age, where they are from etc so the site can match people. It could be a place where its just about playing a game with an option to meet up if they want. Accounts would need to be verified with a credit card in your name and link to their Facebook page all this info would be kept secure, but it would reduce the uncertainty for participants for who they are talking to is really who

they say they are. Also people could go on double dates and play on and offline together to reduce the tension. Like play doubles tennis online then have a real game offline. Also a group of individuals could play a game online then do an activity offline together again reducing risk and uncertainty as it’s a group and anyone can talk to anyone in the mix group and would be a way to make friends and could even find a member of the other sex. A group of individuals could play the games listed above for groups but the teams are randomly put together from individuals.

Overall the site would be a place where it mixes social network, online games, online gambling, offline activities and can makes it easy to meet new people. The site would be made not to be intimidating and easy for members to join and use whatever service on the site they want. I think there is a market opportunity to combine the on and offline worlds if its groups of friends vs other groups or even a place to meet new friends online and then offline. I think there is a huge market that this site could fill.

Appendices:

Fig (1)

Fig 2

Fig (3)

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