Computers Discussion

By Dominic Donaldson

 Word of mouth can play a big part in promoting a product; it’s something that clever marketing departments have known for a long time and used to their advantage. But it’s also something that has to be approached with caution. It’s all very well if the word of mouth that a product creates prior to its launch is positive, but if it’s negative, the product can sink without a trace, no matter how good it is. Gadget reviews that manage to get hold of products before their launch play a huge part in creating the buzz around a product that make it a huge success from the moment it hits the shelves.

It goes without saying that the bigger a fan-base any given company has the more likely it is that anything produced by that company will create a positive pre launch buzz rather than a negative one. Apple, the US based electronics company, have always benefitted from this, especially in recent years. The fact that the products Apple manufactures have monthly magazines dedicated to them, that run favourable gadget reviews is also significant.

For months before the launch of the latest Apple operating system, OS X Leopard, fan forums and blog pages were full of talk about how good the new software would be. Gadget reviews online and in magazines gave tantalising snippets of information to Mac users about many of the 300 new features that were rumoured to be included in the new operating system and the fans lapped it up.

The buzz that was created in the run up to the launch was text book; finding anything negative about the new product in any gadget reviews was like finding a needle in a haystack, and it hadn’t even gone on sale yet! The fact that the product did live up to all the hype, of course, meant that Apple could use this positive momentum and not waste time and resources combating any negativity. It’s a scenario that Microsoft could only wish for when they launched Windows ME.

Windows Millennium Edition was supposed to be the best PC operating system ever. It was supposed to iron out all previous Windows problems and offer the user a completely new experience but months before it hit the shelves it hit problems. Initial reports in gadget reviews sections of magazines and online said it offered little from the previous version, Windows 98, and had even gone backwards in many areas.

Gadget reviews questioned its reliability and rumours that it was prone to crashing and riddled with bugs were rife. Microsoft certainly didn’t do itself any favours by simultaneously launching another version of Windows, 2000, which many regarded as more stable and advanced. The result was that when it was finally available to buy uptake among early adopters was slow. It became the least favourite version of Windows ever.

Microsoft has always suffered from this type of pre launch publicity with many of its products receiving luke-warm reviews at best. The story for apple could not be more different. Gadget reviews for its products are almost always positive, even rumours about future launches seem to go some way to cementing Apple’s position as a design and technology leader.

With this in mind it’s hardly surprising that whenever Apple launches a new iPod, iPhone or iMac there are queues around the block full of people eager to be the first to try out the new technology.

Dominic Donaldson is an expert in the technology industry.

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Computers

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By Jerry Shannon

 Outdoor advertising is a low budget and effective way of advertising a company’s product. Among the entire methods billboard advertising is the most sort after method, which has been proven to be the best sales strategy in the recent times. Nearly 5.6 billion dollar was spent on billboard advertising alone, in the year 2006, as analyzed by Outdoor Advertising Association of America.

Billboard advertising is the best bet in outdoor advertising and isn’t that costly. And with the amount of exposure the product gets the money is worth it. In the past few years several factors have triggered billboard advertising and cost effectiveness being one of the prime reasons. One of the reasons being if an ad is placed in the local newspaper or a television channel the advertisement gets noticed for only thirty seconds and when the same advertisement is placed on billboard, it gets noticed through out the day, for months. Thousands of people view billboard everyday on their way to jobs or home, it doesn’t get lost in the pages like an advertisement placed in a newspaper or magazine. There is a frequent and continuous delivery of message. No other advertising method can grab the attention of people like billboard advertising. It creates brand awareness and strong name recognition.

One of the reasons behind the cost being low is technology. In the early years the billboards were hand-painted due to which the labor cost was high. Now, advertisers design and print their advertisements on a huge poster board or vinyl board by a computer-aided printer, which is very cost effective. Creativity can be achieved to the highest extent, with ease and less money. The brighter, colorful, creative the advertisement is, the more eye-catching it is. With the advancements in technology, it takes very less time to design billboards with unlimited possibilities.

Before placing a billboard advertisement in a particular area it’s better that a research is done about the interest of the people in and around that area. Like if the advertiser desires to post a billboard advertisement on a highway, he can choose the advertisement on a motel, cafeteria, or gas station. Depending on the locality specific potential customers should be targeted.

The cost is really reasonable. It varies from $1,000 to $3,000 per month. Ten advertisements will cost around $ 30,000. It might look like a big amount, but it costs almost same if placing a full-page ad in a newspaper for only a day. And if the effectiveness is considered for both the methods, newspaper advertisements are not even half as effective as billboard advertisements. When an advertisement is placed in a newspaper or in a magazine, the customer should reach out to see the advertisement, but when an advertisement is placed on a billboard, it is like reaching to the customers.

Thus, Billboard advertising has high-impact on people and is a cost-effective method of advertisement. The above-mentioned advantages are few of the many advantages of billboard advertising. And that’s the reason why all types of companies and businesses are choosing to go with billboard advertising. From placing the billboard at a theater multiplex, highway, airport, and even pasting them on cars, any kind of product can be advertised to any kind of audience. And the effectiveness of it can never be underestimated.

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Computers

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