Chapter 1

Internet Exercises

Exercise 1

In only a few short years, consumer-generated marketing has increased exponentially. It's also known as consumer-generated media and consumer-generated content. More than 100 million Web sites contain user-generated content. You may be a contributor yourself if you've ever posted something on a blog, reviewed a product at Amazon.com, uploaded a video on YouTube, or sent a video from your mobile phone to a news Web site. This force has not gone unnoticed by marketers and with good reason. Nielsen, the TV ratings giant, found that most consumers trust consumer opinions posted online. As a result, savvy marketers encourage consumers to generate content.

For example, Moe's restaurant has created a creative dance contest. These are the instructions for the contest. "To enter, create a dance video no longer than 30 seconds and upload it to www.ilovequeso.com (link no longer active) any time before July 24, 2011. " Moe's panel of judges will consider originality, video quality, dance moves, and the dance-off ranking to determine who will win the $10,000 grand prize. Website: http://moes.com.

However, consumer-generated marketing is not without problems - just search "I hate (insert company name)" in any search engine!

2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of consumer-generated marketing.

Exercise 2

Choose three restaurants or hotel companies you have found on the Internet. Based on the information provided in each company's Web site:

D. Select the company you would purchase from and state why.

Chapter 6

Experiential Exercise

2. Talk to several people about how they would choose a hotel in a city they have never been to before, a restaurant for a special occasion, or a place to vacation. What did you learn about the buyer decision process from these discussions?