editor, Author at Mediastreet

In News

New study: Majority of consumers are unaware of how search engines work

January 29, 2020 No Comments

As brands and their marketing departments deploy strategies to capitalize on record ecommerce spending — which soared to $586.92 billion in 2019 — new research from leading provider of brand protection solutions, BrandVerity, has brought to light important findings and hidden risks pertaining to the journeys consumers are taking online.

In order to give brands a better understanding of the search experiences their customers are having and how they are impacting brand perception and customer experience, BrandVerity commissioned the “BrandVerity’s Online Consumer Search Trends 2020” research study in Q4 of 2019 to over 1,000 US consumers, balanced against the US population for age, gender, region, and income.

Amongst the many findings, three main themes stood out:

Consumers confused by how search engine results work

Only 37% of consumers understand that search engine results are categorized by a combination of relevance and advertising spend.

The other 63% of consumers believe that Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are categorized by either relevance or spend, or they simply “don’t know.”

Additionally, nearly 1-in-3 consumers (31%) say they don’t believe search engines (e.g. Google) do a good job of labeling which links are ads.

Consumers more inclined to click on the result that appears first

Without a clear understanding of how search results are served up, consumers are more inclined to click on the result that appears first, believing it to be the most relevant option.

With 54% of consumers saying they trust websites more that appear at the top of the SERP, this isn’t just an assumption.

Consumers feel misled by the websites they find in the search engine results

51% of consumers say that when searching for information on a product, they sometimes feel misled by one of the websites in the search results.

An additional 1-in-4 report feeling misled “often” or “always.”

Even further, 25% also say they often end up somewhere unexpected that does not provide them with what they were looking for when clicking on a search result.

“Against a backdrop where consumers have increasingly high expectations of the brands they do business with, and are holding them to equally high standards, companies must ensure that the entirety of the experiences they provide meet customer expectations,” said Dave Naffziger CEO of Brandverity.

“As these findings show, a general uncertainty of how search engines work, combined with the significant occurrence of poor online experiences, mean oversight of paid search programs is more important than ever for brands today.”

Sourced from Search Engine Watch.

In News

Big Tobacco wants social media influencers to promote its products – can the platforms stop it?

January 28, 2020 No Comments

By Andrew Rowell

Big Tobacco likes to stay ahead of the curve – it has to in order to survive. Its fundamental problem is that one in two of its long-term users die from tobacco-related diseases. To hook a new generation into addiction, it has to try every advertising and marketing trick in its playbook.

And it has to be innovative. As one ex-marketing consultant remarked: “The problem is how do you sell death?” He said the industry did it with great open spaces, such as mountains and lakes. They did it with healthy young people and iconic images. So the Marlboro Man became a symbol of masculinity and, for women, the industry promoted smoking as a “torch of freedom”.

For years, the industry fought the regulators who slowly and belatedly restricted the places and ways it could advertise and market its products. Then came the internet, which was a dream come true for a tobacco marketeer. The industry could run riot in an unregulated haven. One commentator noted in Wired magazine in 2017 that the internet was a contemporary incarnation of the wild west.

As old rules no longer applied, Big Tobacco began using internet platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, to bypass advertising bans. They began paying social media influencers to promote traditional tobacco products as well as e-cigarettes online. And they were very successful at it.

In August 2018, the New York Times investigated Big Tobacco’s social media and Instagram influences. The paper found 123 hashtags associated with companies’ tobacco products, which had been viewed a staggering 25 billion times. Robert Kozinets, a professor at the University of Southern California, told the newspaper that what the industry was doing was a “really effective way” to get around existing laws to restrict advertising to young people.

Cease and desist

The pressure on the industry to act increased in May 2019 when 125 public health organisations called on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat to immediately end the promotion of cigarettes and e-cigarettes. This included banning the use of social media influencers. The industry ignored the request.

In December 2019, in a landmark decision, the UK Advertising Standards Authority ruled against British American Tobacco and three other firms for promoting their products on Instagram, after a complaint by ASH, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and STOP, of which the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath is a partner.

In a follow-up statement, Facebook and Instagram announced what many saw as a long-overdue update to their policy on tobacco. It said that branded content that promotes goods such as vaping, tobacco products and weapons “will not be allowed”. The statement made the bold claim that their advertising policies had long “prohibited” the advertisement of these products. The platforms promised that enforcement would begin on this in the coming weeks.

Headlines touting the new policy made it clear that the platforms will ban influencers from promoting e-cigarettes and tobacco products. For example, a BBC headline announced: “Instagram e-cigarette posts banned by ad watchdog.” But they missed three crucial points. First, Facebook’s policies are designed for companies that play by the rules, not for tobacco companies whose playbook is to find ways around them or flout them.

Second, those who track the industry’s activities online say it is notoriously difficult to tell what Facebook calls “branded content”. On Instagram, Big Tobacco’s influencers post glamorised images of vape products with hashtags such as #idareyoutotryit and captions such as “feeling Vype AF”. They don’t post content that simply says “paid promotion of British American Tobacco,” for example.

Finally, serious doubts remain about how any of this will be enforced. The reality is that Big Tobacco needs Instagram to survive and can’t afford to be excluded. A market research company, Klear, recently noted that 96% of all brands have incorporated Instagram into their influencer strategy and that global Instagram influencer marketing activity increased by 48% in 2019.

One of those who has tracked the industry’s use of social media is Caroline Renzulli of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. In an email, she told me: “In the weeks since the announcement that influencers would be banned from promoting tobacco and e-cigarettes, tobacco companies have continued to exploit influencer marketing on Facebook and Instagram to advertise addictive products to young people without consequence.”

She added that: “Facebook and Instagram are uniquely positioned to cut off Big Tobacco’s easiest access point to kids and young people around the world – but without swift enactment and strict enforcement of new policies, the announcement is yet another hollow statement from a company that no longer has any excuse for inaction on this issue.”

By Andrew Rowell

Sourced from The Conversation

In News

Snapchat was overtaken by Pinterest in US users last year. But the real threat is coming from China’s TikTok and no one knows how fast it’s growing.

January 28, 2020 No Comments

By Tyler Sonnemaker.

Pinterest surpassed Snapchat as the third-largest social media network in the US, according to a report from eMarketer.
EMarketer predicted that Pinterest will “continue to stay ahead of Snapchat in the coming years.”
The report said that despite Snap’s 2019 comeback and popularity with younger users, Pinterest’s “universal appeal” helped it pull ahead this year.
Shares of Pinterest surged as much as 12% on Tuesday morning after the report was released.

Pinterest has surpassed Snapchat to become the third-largest social media network in the US, according to a new report from eMarketer.

The news is a significant shake-up in the social media pecking order, and could signal that Snapchat has begun to lose its luster among the millennial users who for years have given the social media app a distinct cachet.

Pinterest’s number of monthly users grew to 82.4 million in 2019, up 9.1% from the previous year, beating out Snapchat’s 80.2 million, a 5.9% increase, according to the report’s estimates. Pinterest claimed the third spot behind No.2-ranked Instagram, and Facebook, which reigned as the most popular social network in the US last year.

The report caused Pinterest’s stock to jump as much as 12% on Tuesday morning after the report’s release.

“While Snapchat has a young core audience that it caters to, Pinterest has a more universal appeal, and it’s made significant gains in a wide range of age groups,” said Nazmul Islam, an analyst at eMarketer, which is owned by Business Insider’s parent company, Insider Inc.

But the report does not include user numbers for China’s TikTok, which has enjoyed explosive growth among teens and young adults over the past year. In December, CNBC cited an estimate from App Annie that TikTok had 625 million monthly users on a global basis, but it’s not clear how many users the app has in the US.

In its report, eMarketer predicted that Pinterest would remain ahead of Snap for the coming years. But if the TikTok surge continues, both Pinterest and Snapchat could be soon be overtaken by the Chinese app.

Shares of Snap remained flat following the report’s release.

Following a 2018 redesign that initially caused backlash among users, Snapchat seemed to be making a comeback in 2019 thanks to popular augmented reality “lenses” like its gender-swap filter, earning it praise from investors.

But Pinterest’s efforts to convince investors that its platform is a “visual discovery tool” more akin to Google than Snapchat seem to be paying off. The eMarketer report shows that the strong user growth Pinterest saw ahead of its public offering last April has continued on an upward trajectory.

emarketer pinterest snap age — Pinterest’s wide appeal across ages helped it surpass Snapchat as the third-largest social media network in the US in 2019.

Get the latest Snap stock price here.

Feature Image Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid

By Tyler Sonnemaker.

Sourced from Business Insider

In News

Apple and Google’s tough new location privacy controls are working

January 28, 2020 No Comments

By Jared Newman.

Spare a thought, if you will, for the digital advertisers who have grown dependent on knowing your exact whereabouts at any instant.

New information shows that the biggest source for all this location data—namely, the smartphones that we carry around everywhere—is drying up as Apple and Google offer stronger, clearer privacy controls on their platforms.

Some recent data points to consider:

Since the launch of iOS 13 last fall, the amount of background location data that marketers collect has dropped by 68% according to Location Sciences, a firm that helps marketers analyze location data.
Location Sciences also found that foreground data sharing, which occurs only while an app is open, dropped by 24%.
A Google spokesman tells Fast Company that when Android users have the option to only share location data when they’re actively using an app, they choose that option about half the time.
As Digiday reported last week, apps are now seeing opt-in rates under 50% for collecting location data when they’re not in use, according to Benoit Grouchko, CEO of the ad tech business Teemo.

None of this means that location tracking is going away, but with more people opting out of sharing their precise location with apps, advertisers now have to make do with less accurate information. That in turn could make them rethink overly invasive tracking in the first place.

All about the options

With iOS, users have been able to stop any app from collecting location data in the background since 2017, but Apple gave this feature much more prominence in iOS 13. If an app is gathering location data while it’s not in use, iOS can show a pop-up with an option to cut off access. Apple also added a “just once” option in iOS 13 that requires apps to ask for location permission every time they’re opened.

“As those particular options were made available to users, we do attribute that to the decrease in sharing,” says Jason Smith, Location Sciences’ chief business officer.

Android’s location controls haven’t always been as useful, but the latest Android 10 release plays catchup with a similar “only while in use” setting when apps request location data. Like iOS, Android 10 also alerts users when an existing app collects location data in the background and provides a shortcut to stop the app from doing so.

These tools are becoming available just as we’re becoming more aware of how mobile apps have quietly trafficked users’ location histories. The New York Times, for instance, has reported on how apps like The Weather Channel, GasBuddy, and TheScore have collected detailed location data from users even while their apps aren’t in use, and it has documented how this supposedly anonymous data can pinpoint individuals based on their movements.

How apps will track you next

With Apple and Google providing less ready access to GPS location data, marketers will likely turn to IP addresses for location tracking instead, says Location Sciences’ Smith. Apps and websites can collect this data through the mobile or Wi-Fi network you’re using, and neither iOS nor Android offer any built-in controls to prevent it.

Still, IP addresses are less accurate than the precise GPS coordinates that apps had been collecting previously, which means marketers will have a tougher time tracking your precise whereabouts. In practical terms, that means location-based advertising will probably get a lot dumber in the near term, as marketers lose the ability to determine what store you visited or where you had lunch.

“You have an environment in which advertisers have been paying for—at a premium cost—high-quality, highly accurate GPS data,” Smith says. “They’re now confronted with a phenomenon in which that data is less available.”

Location Sciences’ angle in all of this is to sell tools that help advertisers know what kind of location data they’re purchasing. That way, they don’t waste money on inaccurate information. Other players in the ad tech business, however, are hoping for a more fundamental shift toward privacy.

We’re sort of at the precipice of this educational environment.”

Raman Sidhu, VP of business development for the marketing analytics firm Beemray, says the new tools in iOS and Android—along with new regulations such as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act—could be a wake-up call for a complacent industry.

“There are lot of different solutions now that are getting a lot of momentum, which previously wouldn’t have gotten any momentum because there was no reason for the agencies to think about something outside of the box,” Sidhu says.

One of those solutions, of course, could be Beemray, which rejects the idea of following people around and instead uses contextual clues (approximate location data among them) to predict which messages might resonate. As a basic example, someone who’s sitting at a desk in London and reading about travel might see an ad for direct flights to New York. Since the resulting ad wouldn’t be as hyper-targeted as what advertisers are used to, Sidhu expects that brands would have to focus more on production values, or on forging direct relationships with consumers who might provide data more willingly.

“Advertising should get better for consumers, because rather than being followed around with the same ads . . . the ad should be complementary to that user’s moods, moments, mindsets, and emotions,” Sidhu says.

The other possibility is that users will look to further protect their location histories through Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which can mask the IP addresses on which advertisers are increasingly relying. Google already offers a VPN service for customers of its Google Fi cellular plans, and my colleague Michael Grothaus has called for Apple to build a VPN into iOS. Firefox has been experimenting with VPN service as well, and Amazon’s Eero routers offer VPN service through the Eero Secure+ subscription program. It’s not hard to imagine VPN becoming a standard feature on our phones, computers, and home networks in the future.

Location Sciences’ Smith says that’s one possibility among many as people become more privacy-conscious.

“We’re sort of at the precipice of this educational environment,” he says, “in which people are now becoming aware of what their options are, how those options impact the security that they will receive, and how other third-party companies are being respectful and mindful of those options.”

Feature Image Credit: [Photos: Tyler Lastovich; Lorenzo/Pexels]

By Jared Newman

Jared Newman covers apps and technology from his remote Cincinnati outpost. He also writes two newsletters, Cord Cutter Weekly and Advisorator. More

Sourced from Fast Company

In News

10 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Brick-and-Mortar Store

January 27, 2020 No Comments

By Jamie Johnson.

As more customers embrace online shopping, here are 10 ways you can increase foot traffic into your store’s physical location.

Small business owners with a physical location are always looking for ways to drive more customers into their stores. Some of the best ways to increase foot traffic to your store involve differentiating yourself from your competitors and offering a unique in-store experience. Here are 10 of the best methods to do just that.

Utilize digital channels

If you want your retail store to be a success, you have to incorporate social media as a marketing strategy. Social media is a great way to build engagement with your customers and keep your store in their minds.

You can do this in a variety of ways — from showing behind-the-scenes photos and videos to hosting contests and giveaways. And don’t forget to regularly promoting your products: Studies show that 56% of customers who follow brands on social media do so because they want to browse through the company’s products.

Improve your curb appeal

One of the easiest ways to attract more customers to your store is by improving the curb appeal. Make sure customers can easily access your store and that the front entrance is well-landscaped.

Spruce up the front of your store with inviting and aesthetically pleasing decorations, such as brightly colored flower pots during the spring and summer months, or seasonal and festive decor during the fall and winter months.

Claim your Google Business listing

When it comes to driving local traffic to your store, Google can be a very effective tool. However, you need to claim your Google Business listing first. That way, your store will show up anytime a local customer searches for a business similar to yours.

Once you’ve verified your business, you can start encouraging your customers to leave reviews. This will give your business credibility and will help new customers find you.

Offer discounts and rewards

Everyone loves a good discount, so offering a promotion for a limited time is a great way to encourage customers to visit your store. Share your promotion through email and social media, and let customers know they can redeem the discount in-store.

Encourage customers to buy gift cards

With the holidays quickly approaching, now is a great time to start encouraging your customers to purchase gift cards for friends and family. Gift cards are often given out around the holidays, and this is a great way to reach new potential customers who may have never heard of your store before.

Some of the best ways to increase foot traffic to your store involve differentiating yourself from your competitors.

Host an event

Offering special events can be a great way to encourage customers to stop by your store. For instance, if you sell workout clothes, why not host a free yoga class in-store? Lululemon does this frequently to incentivize customers to stop by one of their locations.

You can also partner with other local businesses to co-host events. The point is, find a way to make your store a fun and inviting place customers will be excited to visit.

Let customers buy online and pick up in-store

Most customers love online shopping but hate paying for shipping. A great way to remedy this is by giving customers the option to purchase items online, then pick them up in-store. One survey found that 57% of customers will utilize this service to avoid paying for shipping costs.

If you decide to offer this service, make it as frictionless as possible for your customers. Have the merchandise ready to go once they arrive and train your staff on how to handle the occasional return.

Provide USB chargers

If you want to earn some serious goodwill with your customers, start providing free phone charging stations inside your store. You can advertise this as a unique perk on social media and your website. You’ll be sure to make an impression the next time a customer enters your store with their battery under 10%.

Create an entertainment area for kids

If you run a store that caters to moms with small children, set up an entertainment area somewhere in your store. This doesn’t have to be elaborate; it could just be a table where kids can color. That way, parents can enjoy their shopping experience and will be more likely to return to your store.

Set up a comfortable lounge area

Finally, shopping can be tiring for many customers. If you want to stand out, consider setting up a comfortable lounge area for your customers where they can relax. And you can sweeten the deal by offering complimentary tea and coffee.

Feature Image Credit: RyanJLane/Getty Images

By Jamie Johnson.

Sourced from CO

In News

It’s time to build a responsible media supply chain

January 27, 2020 No Comments

By Marc Pritchard.

The digital media revolution has been transformative – but it has a dark side.
As millions more come online, these negative aspects will become magnified.
All stakeholders must collaborate to build a supply chain that is good for both customers and business.

Twenty-five years ago the first digital banner ad was launched, and a media revolution was born. Since then, data and digital technology have disrupted every aspect of the advertising, media and marketing ecosystem, transforming how we inform, entertain and engage people.

There have been many positive benefits. Creativity has expanded. Nearly any information can be found instantly. Shopping has never been easier. People connect in novel ways never thought possible. And the next decade will bring more change. We can see a world without ads as we know them today: where mass personalization is the norm; where immersive technologies transform media experiences; and where advertising serves as a positive force for society.

But there is a dark side to this revolution. Lack of transparency has led to massive media waste, and issues of brand and human safety. As digital media became dominant, we faced the inconvenient truth that we were operating in a murky and sometimes even fraudulent media supply chain. And while progress has been made to clean it up, it’s not enough. Digital media continues to grow – and with it, a dark side persists. Waste and fraud continue. Privacy breaches and consumer data misuse keeps occurring. Unacceptable content continues to be seen and viewed alongside brands. Bad actors siphon funds from advertisers and find ways to create scams, divisiveness and social unrest.

These are significant problems. As the next half of the world’s population comes online, the problems could grow exponentially unless all stakeholders come together and act. We are in the early stages of artificial intelligence and virtual, augmented and mixed reality – so imagine what broad application of those technologies could bring if left unchecked. While the clean-up efforts must continue, it’s time to use our collective intellectual firepower to chart the course for a different future.

Brand new

It’s time to create a responsible media supply chain that is built for the year 2030. Imagine a media supply chain that operates in a way that is safe, efficient, transparent, accountable, and properly moderated for everyone involved, especially for the consumers we serve. Imagine a responsible media supply chain that builds in the following attributes:

Content quality. Every media provider would have complete control over content quality on their platform. Common standards would be followed so certain types of content would not exist and would certainly not be monetized through advertising. Advertising would never be next to content where opioids are being offered; where illegal drugs are promoted; where abhorrent behavior is present; or where violence is seen.

Civility. Freedom of speech is a right, but civility is a responsibility. That means every media provider would handle editorial comments in a way that promotes freedom of expression, but in a way that creates a balanced and constructive discourse. Technology would enable broad and productive conversations, but technology would not make it easy to hijack conversations and disproportionately amplify negativity, divisiveness, or hate.

Digital ad spending now far outstrips TV in the US

Image: Statista

Transparency. That means all media providers would enable full measurement visibility on ad viewability and audience reach, both within their platforms and across all platforms. This would create a better experience for consumers who would not be forced to see the same ad over and over again – on the same program, on the same platform, or across multiple platforms. Transparency would help avoid annoying consumers with too many ads and avoid wasting money.

Data responsibility. That means all stakeholders would follow common privacy standards and practices that start and end with serving the best interests of consumers. Choices would be simple, consistently worded, and completely understandable, so each person knows exactly what permission they’re granting and what control they have over their data. Consumers would trust that all media providers and advertisers are responsibly handling their data.

It’s time for all stakeholders to come together and create a responsible media supply chain that builds in content quality, civility, transparency, and data responsibility from the very start – a supply chain that is good for consumers and good for business. We’re on the edge of the next great revolution of technology. With all the great minds in our industry, we can and should avoid the pitfalls of the past and chart the course for a responsible future.

Feature Image Credit: ATLAS Social Media/Flickr

By Marc Pritchard

Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer, Procter & Gamble

Sourced from World Economic Forum

In News

Marketers Are Going To Be OK With Google’s Killing The Cookie (For Good)

January 27, 2020 No Comments

By Cory Treffiletti

Are you ready for a Google-centric advertising world?

That’s what is about to happen. Last week saw Google announce it will be phasing out third-party cookies from Google Chrome. Chrome represents almost 70% of the market for web browsers on a desktop and 40% in mobile. Safari, Firefox and Microsoft have the rest, and many of them already include ad blockers, cookie-clearing and other tools that hamper digital targeting.

Google is going to offer its own ways to target leveraging Google data, which means if you work at an ad-tech company not named Google (or Facebook or Amazon, for that matter) then your ability to deliver targeted ad messages is going to be severely impacted.

This news does not come as a surprise. It has been rumored for years. And now it is coming to fruition.

Some industry pundits will make claims that this creates an opportunity for new ways to reach targeted audiences by proclaiming their technology does X or Y. These will be versions of fingerprinting or ad-DNA.

In any case, these claims will fall on deaf ears. The truth is that most marketers will see this, understand the impact, and move on. Moving on means they will either work with Google, or not worry about targeting, instead focusing on price.

A world where a third-party solution like the cookie is gone means prices will be pressured to drop to account for the untargeted nature of online advertising outside the Google parameters.

Google will still offer targeting. That targeting will be at a premium because it offers one of the only accurate ways to deliver a specific audience at scale. Outside of Google, ads will be scattershot, delivered to anyone on a platform where they come up.

The only way untargeted ads will work for marketers is if they are lower priced, to account for lower response rates. Then, just maybe, they have a chance to compete.

OTT and digital video ads may still have the opportunity to “target” based on data or context, but display will take a step back because the performance will be harder to achieve.

This does open the door for Facebook, strangely enough. Paid social is a channel where data can still be leveraged — although that will be using Facebook data on Facebook platforms. The dollars that were still hanging on for targeted display and native ads could easily be seen to shift to paid social, further padding the pockets of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Google said it has no desire to injure publishers looking to make money from ads, and it’s telling the truth. Its intent is to create a stronger sense of demand for Google products, and doing so does mean a negative impact on anyone not currently in its network.

The marketers are the ones who will drive this adoption. Marketers like to work with Google. No matter how many ad-tech companies call, reach out and proclaim to have an amazing solution, Google still gets the benefit of the doubt.

A marketer’s day is busy. There are many demands on our time, and we don’t have hours upon hours to decode and test a new vendor whose solution may be great, but has questions of scale.

Speaking from my own perspective, I like new ideas and new solutions, but I prioritize the ideas that have the most bang for the buck. Most of the time, that defaults back to the larger, established players we currently work with and who have proven to provide scalable value in the past.

So, what does that mean for the industry? It means cookies are about to (finally) become a relic of the past, along with popups, pop-unders and 468x60s. It means the gap between the large players and the smaller niche players is about to widen even further. It means OTT and digital video are about to become the final battlefield for the remaining digital ad budgets.

Here’s to seeing what happens in the next 11 months!

By Cory Treffiletti

Sourced from MediaPost

In News

Why Should Entrepreneurs Serve A Niche Market?

January 24, 2020 No Comments

By Jatin Ahuja

Niche businesses are not resistant to competition, particularly from bigger market players with generous assets and economies of scale
When the speciality market has been saturated, open doors for development can emerge out of various sources
There are a few specialities showcases under each industry

By looking at the number of successful CEOs and all the under-30s, 40s, or 50s business leaders, it is safe to say starting with a niche market is a successful startup plan. You may ask why?

Business owners who focus on an immediate connection between the size of a target market and the likelihood of winning people’s trust often miss what a niche market can offer. Marketing niche ideas or creating disruptive business not just give new companies a chance to flourish the business effectively, however, can likewise assist them with developing into significant players in an international market. Sound and profitable organizations all have tapped disruptive ideas and made it big in the past.

Finding a speciality is significant for entrepreneurs who need to make a constant flow of income and build a loyal customer base. A strong market speciality guarantees that a specific gathering of customers will need to purchase from your business, rather than heading off to the competition brand.

There are a few specialities showcases under each industry. If an entrepreneur thinks about a quite certain item that serves one of their extraordinary needs, it can most likely belong to a niche speciality business. In the past, there have been several examples of such ideas in internet, automobile, telecom, and fashion industry to relate to.

What Does A Niche Market Give In Return?

Effectively Open Clients

For a business specialty to be beneficial, your potential clients should likewise be open, and getting to them must not be difficult. When tapping an industry with a disruptive idea, if clients are open to try new ways, the idea can easily flourish.

An Underserved Or Ignored Market

For areas where there are already too many players, the market becomes oversaturated, which means the businesses stop growing and the competition makes it difficult for all to survive. However, for a niche market, the business owners are targeting an underserved, neglected section of people. Doing this can be beneficial.

Market Competition

Niche businesses are not resistant to competition, particularly from bigger market players with generous assets and economies of scale. So even with markets performing better for other players, in what capacity would it be a good idea for you to behave? Fruitful niche organizations will react with advancement and better items, as opposed to cost-cutting measures like their competition.

Development Opportunities

When the speciality market has been saturated, open doors for development can emerge out of various sources. One of them is to expand worldwide.

Many in the profession often believe a niche market is a valley of large and small-scale players where the bigger you are, the better. However, many forget that the small-scale niche startups survive the competition to become huge and successful because they learn to endure through the competition. So take a gander at such companies in your industry and what they’re advertising. You may see a disruptive innovation it shall hit.

Most importantly regardless of certain troubles such as securing investments and managing growth patterns – numerous business visionaries who are centred around niche markets look at it to be staggeringly gainful and satisfying. The keys to progress are to keep in contact with your clients, comprehend their needs and keep a laser-sharp spotlight on serving those requirements with a pledge to constant development. Disruptive innovation can be amazing by the way it changes your business, however, you ought to be prepared to advance regardless.

By Jatin Ahuja

Founder & Managing Director at Big Boy Toyz Limited

Sourced from Inc42

In News

Google cutting web cookies, ending lucrative tracking tool for advertisers

January 24, 2020 No Comments

Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Richard Chang.

(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google within two years plans to block a common way businesses track online surfers in its Chrome browser, endorsing costly changes to how the Web operates as it tries to satisfy increased privacy demands from users.

Google’s plan is to restrict advertising software companies and other organizations from connecting their browser cookies to websites they do not operate, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday. (bit.ly/2RmTYKK)

Apple made a similar move in 2017 in its Safari browser, but Chrome’s global market share is more than three times greater at about 64%, according to tracking company Statcounter.

Though the two-year goal is new, Google’s announcement had been expected within the industry for months. Financial analysts expect minimal effect on Google’s own ad business because it gathers data on users in many other ways.

But shares of some rival advertising software companies fell on Tuesday, including Criteo SA (CRTO.O) by 8% and Trade Desk Inc (TTD.O) by 1.4%.

For nearly three decades, cookies placed by relatively unknown companies on nearly every website have fueled advertising on the internet.

Cookies are a tool within browsers that allow website operators to save data about users, so that for example, they can keep a particular user logged into a website over multiple days.

But cookies also have given obscure software vendors, whose technology is used by website operators, a broad window into which webpages a user is visiting. When shared with advertisers, the data enable predictions about which ads the individual would find relevant.

Users and regulators have questioned how businesses with access to the browsing data store and share them since the advent of the cookie. But over the last three years, data breaches and new privacy laws in California and Europe have prompted major changes at internet businesses.

Google said its new restriction would not go into effect until alternatives that Google considers more privacy-preserving are viable. Any major transition in Web technology requires significant investment by website operators, and it remains unclear whether more limited data on users would depress online ad prices.

Justin Schuh, a director for Chrome engineering at Google, said initial feedback to proposals it announced in August “gives us confidence that solutions in this space can work.”

Feature Image Credit: FILE PHOTO: The Google app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Richard Chang

Sourced from Reuters

In News

Google’s Top Productivity Expert, Laura Mae Martin, Says This Is How You Should Spend Your Day

January 24, 2020 No Comments

By Minda Zetlin.

You might need to change how you define ‘productivity.’

We all want to be more productive, but how do we actually make it happen? Most of us look for timesaving tips and tricks — use your calendar as a motivational tool! Take a break for moderate exercise during the day so you have more energy for work!

These kinds of tips can be highly useful, and I encourage you to try out any that make sense to you. But sometimes the best way to address productivity is to rethink everything about how you spend your time and how you set your priorities, helping you be not only more productive but also more fulfilled. And perhaps helping you reach the next level of success as well.

That’s how I would describe some advice from Laura Mae Martin, Google’s in-house productivity expert, who trains the company’s executives. Martin has shared lots of useful productivity tips, often around email, with Google executives. But her real strength is helping people change their approach to the whole idea of productivity, and to how they do their jobs.

Here are three pieces of masterful advice from Martin that I intend to start following right away. Maybe you should too.

1. Decide on your priorities and say no to everything else.

Choose your top priorities for each quarter, Martin advises in an interview on a Google blog. (I might try setting priorities for each month, since things can change quickly.) Write them down on a piece of paper and display that paper prominently near your desk. Then, whenever you’re asked — or tempted — to do something that doesn’t help you achieve those specific goals, say no. Having the note in front of you will make that no easier to say. Practice helps too — the more times you say no, the better you’ll get at saying it gracefully and without getting uncomfortable.

It’s important not to clutter up your calendar or your workday with things that don’t move the needle on what you care about most. “The more you say no, the more chances you have to say yes to something that really matters,” Martin explained.

2. Schedule half an hour of “me” time every day.

When a Google blogger asked Martin to name a habit that makes her successful, this is the answer she gave. She says she spends 30 minutes at the start of the day when she allows no interruptions, which she calls the “Laura 30.” What important tasks does she accomplish during the Laura 30? “I just drink my coffee, meditate, journal, or play the piano,” she explained in the blog. The point is to ground her and start her day with a calm and focused mind.

Speaking of a calm and focused mind, Martin believes that everyone who wants to be more productive should practice meditation. People find the concept intimidating, she acknowledges. But, she said, “if you had to cut a thousand pineapples, wouldn’t you spend some time sharpening the knife?” In the same way, taking a few minutes for meditation makes your mind sharper and aids concentration throughout the day.

3. Define productivity as doing what you intended.

A day spent sprawled on the couch watching Netflix is a productive day, Martin told Quartz, if that’s how you intended to spend it. Why would you plan to spend a day that way? I occasionally plan a day like that for myself when I’m feeling particularly tired or burned out and need to do something completely effortless. And when I do take a day to be lazy and self-indulgent, I usually find my productivity picks up when I get back to my desk.

But Martin’s larger, and very insightful, point is that productivity is really about intent. If you intend to spend the day writing a proposal but wind up watching Netflix instead, then that’s lost productivity — but that’s also true if you spend the day answering a thousand emails or sitting in meetings that aren’t directly helpful for your job. And if spending time with your kids is one of your priorities, then driving them to school is time spent productively.

The secret is “knowing what you want to do, intending to do it, and doing what you wanted to do,” Martin explained. That may be the smartest definition of productivity you’ll ever hear.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Minda Zetlin

Co-author, The Geek Gap

@MindaZetlin

Sourced from Inc.