Digital Marketing - YouTube - Essay Example

Digital marketing- You Tube You Tube Introduction Digital marketing uses electronic device such as personal computers, smart phones, cellphones, tables and internet technologies such as the social media channels and applications. Digital marketing enables companies to engage with prospective customers, maintain customer loyalty and generate new sales leads (Patriquin, 2009). RadioShack is a retailer of innovative technology products and services and offers consumers with private brands and major wireless carriers within a convenient shopping environment.

The company is capable of utilizing You Tube digital marketing technology in order to expand its market share and attain competitive edge in the market (Jeffs, 2008). You Tube receives over 4 billion views per day, more than three prime-time audiences of the three major US television networks. You Tube is a video sharing website that was created by former PayPal employees and is currently owned by Google. The users have the opportunity to upload, view and share videos. The company was a venture-funded by Sequoia Capital in 2005, but Google acquired it at $ 1.

65 billion and is now a subsidiary of Google LLC (Patriquin, 2009). The mission is to organize information and make it more accessible and enables customers to access and share videos. The company has entered in to partnership with content providers such as Sony Music Group, NBA, Universal Music Group and BCC (Sekhar, 2007). You Tube is committed to its goal of delivering entertaining, authentic and informative videos across the internet Situational analysis There are both internal and external factors that affect the digital marketing industry and operations of You Tube.

You Tube has unlimited internet resources that are offered by Google and it is ranked number one in video web brand. The company has ventured in to TV channel and provides diversified content that include documentaries, historical movies, entertainment content and educational content (Sekhar, 2007). Other distinct capabilities of You Tube include the ability to create own branded channel and become a partner with the company. The company has attained high word-of-mouth publicity thus needs minimal marketing efforts and has integrated social networking sites like Face book (Jeffs, 2008).

The users have privacy settings that enable them to share the videos either with the public or privately with close friends. The subscribers can track their favorite videos. Some weaknesses include the limitation of 2 GB or ten-minute video uploads by standard users and infringement of copyrights since offensive or copyrighted videos can only be removed after making takedown request (Jeffs, 2008). In addition, the storage servers are expensive to provide and maintain due to the volume of information that flows daily through the channels (Rabin & Miller, 2000).

Industry drivers, constraints and issues You Tube utilizes Adobe Flash video and HTML 5 technology to display millions of user-generated and corporate video content including TV clips, music videos and video clips to users and potential customers. Adobe Flash player is common thus enables about 75 percent of web browsers to access and play the videos (Patriquin, 2009). The currently uses Adobe dynamic streaming for flash, and accepts video uploads in various forms such a MP4, DivX, FLV, and MKV.

The systems support 3GP thus users can upload videos from mobile phones and are displatyed in a higher resolution. In this case, RadioShack can integrate with You Tube in its devices in order to attain the partner revenues for carrying out advertisements of several companies (Freeman, 2010). You Tube has included AdSense product that enables site owners to select certain content providers and ads will be streamed as they relate to the site or video. The resulting profits are shared with the content providers.

Accordingly, You Tube has managed copyright infringement threats through its ‘Video identification’ tool that allows the copyright owners to safeguard their content. Complex algorithms will be applied against the library of content to ascertain copyright owners match the uploaded content (Hill & Jones, 2012). You Tube is the most popular online video site with over 4 billion hours worth of video monthly and uploading of about 72 hours worth of video each minute. Video ads have added a new dimension in marketing since they have the capability of outlining and demonstrating the depth of product stories and features (Jeffs, 2008).

Digital marketing platforms such as You Tube offers consumers with a lot of product information such as the history of the product and product usage procedures in unique ways that are impossible in web copy or print media (Witcher & Chau, 2010). The customers can replay the You Tube advertisement and offers suggestions or recommendations to their friends. You Tube gains Google essential meta-data and it has the lowest fraction of operating costs. Digital marketing industry is driven by innovativeness and high online presence and thus You Tube is the most visited site after Google and Facebook.

Another emerging trend that You Tube has implemented is the online film rental service that is available to US, UK, and Canada customers whereby customers have the opportunity to access more than six thousand films. You Tube also started streaming major sporting events such as the Indian Premier League in 2010. You Tube has integrated its channels with other digital marketing platforms such as social networking sites, Chrome web browser and Google + interface. Accordingly, Google has enrolled content providers to a program that offers them the opportunity to charge $ 0.

99 per month or more for accessing certain channels. You Tube has established partnerships with Lions Gate entertainment, MGM and CBS in that grants the partners the opportunity to offer length films and television shows in return for advertisements (Hill & Jones, 2012). Major competitors and nature of competition The leading competitors in digital marketing that have ventured in web video advertising include Hulu, Tremor Media video network, BrightRoll video network and Adap.TV. Other significant competitors include Viacom, Microsoft sites, CBS interactive, SpotXchnage video ad network and AdoTube.

Hulu has established partnerships with NBC, Fox and Disney in order to increase the viewership (Patriquin, 2009). The industry has an oligopoly completion model since only few firms make up the market due to the high barriers of entry and significant economies of scale of the large firms (Dahlen & Lange, 2008). The advertisement products are almost identical and pricing decisions of one firm will influence the overall strategic actions of the other companies in the industry. According to Google Chief Business officer Nikesh Arora, video plays a critical role in Google advertising revenues sine the top 100 brand advertisers spent about 50 percent of their money on You Tube.

The site generates over 4 billion views daily and most of the in-stream ads are currently TrueView, meaning that advertisers will not be forced to pay for what viewers have skipped. Google have invested heavily in You Tube as evidenced by the professional channels to the site and recent rolling of own iPhone and iPad applications (Dahlen & Lange, 2008). Customers, segments and consumer behavior You Tube customers include the people who use the channel to market their products, services and businesses.

The viewers use the channel to watch their favorite television series, entertainment clips, educational views and documentaries (MacMillan, 2009). You Tube offers customers with branded channels that include the customer’s banner and logo that ensures products have an active web presence (Drejer, 2002). RadioShack will benefit from advertising on You Tube since it can utilize its logo and banner in order to create high brand recognition and awareness in the emerging global markets. The company can also provide short video clips of the variety of digital products offered by the company and their specific attributes to the consumers thus increasing the chances of generating more sales (Dahlen & Lange, 2008).

The customers can be segmented on the basis of age, lifestyle and education levels. Digital behavior segmentation experts assert that You Tube targets dedicated gamers, music lovers, movie buffs, and TV fans (MacMillan, 2009). The users watch over 4 billiojnm hours of video monthly and 72 hours of video are uploaded every minute thus displaying the unique behavior of the users. The customers are integrate with social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook since You Tube receives 500 tweets per minute and 100 million people rate You Tube content with either likes, shares or comments per every week (Patriquin, 2009).

Accordingly, RadioShack products are aimed at this market segment thus using digital marketing platform as You Tube will enable the company to connect with millions of potential customers who need entertainment (Sadler & Craig, 2003). The viewers aged 18-34 ages visit the site frequently and share online content frequently due to their tech savvy status. More than half subscribe to specific channels while the Smartphone users use their particular applications frequently on content channels.

You Tube targets the customers with socializing and communication attitudes especially the young people who use the internet for entertainment purposes (Witcher & Chau, 2010). The product aims at generating word-of-mouth excitement among the youth who use social networking tools to share information. The advertisements aim at customers who require details on product usage especially the product features. Conclusion You Tube offers web video advertisement services through branded channels and partner programs that aim at reaching high number of entertainment, educational and information seeking internet users.

The company has attained high competitive advantage due to unlimited internet and storage servers offered by Google and superior web video ranking technology. The advertisers can create own branded channels while content providers can share revenues for sites. References: Dahlen, M & Lange, F. (2008). Marketing communications. New Jersey: John Wiley. Drejer, A. (2002). Strategic management and core competencies: theory and application. Westport, CT: Quorum books. Freeman, R.E. (2010). Strategic management: a stakeholder approach.

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New York: CRC Press. Sadler, P & Craig, J.C. (2003). Strategic management. London: Kogan Page. Sekhar, G.S. (2007). Business policy and strategic management. New Delhi: Kluwer Law International Publications. Witcher, B.J & Chau, V.S. (2010). Strategic management: principles and practice. New York: Cengage Learning.