Looking for an ambassador (fail)

Last month Geberit organized the contest ‘Beste Fitter van Nederland 2011’.
After five laps it was time for the final. The winner got great honor and won a price. However for Geberit it is really important that the winner become the ambassador of the contest and other marketing communication activities during the coming year.  
So, it is really important that the person who won the contest is suitable as an ambassador. Last year the contest was first held and then the right person won,  a charismatic and communicative person, so a real ambassador. However, the winner is chosen because of his plumber skills and not because of his communicative talent. On the other hand it is really important for Geberit that the winner is quite communicative, so he is a good ambassador for the contest. Therefore it was exciting to see who won this year. This year the winner is  a quiet person, a doer not a talker, not a real ambassador, so Geberit, what now?

Summer hit 2011?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMYfEFJVjCU

‘Andre Rouvoet leaves politics- What will remain of his principles?’

This header on Nu.nl remind to other politicians who left the politics. Mostly, politicians has a lot of principles while they work in Den Haag. When they are in politics they stand for their principles and defend these in every possible way, however when they leave politics sometimes these principles disappear. One good example of this type of politicians is Thom de Graaf (D66)

Thom de Graaf had one great wish, a case for which he wanted to fight and that was the elected mayor. Not chosen by the queen, but the people should decide who the mayor is. Thom made a draft law, was every evening on television to show his plans and finally the government had to decide whether the law would be approved. Finally the law wasn’t approved and Thom de Graaf decided to leave the politics.

But what happened some months later?  The person who really fight for the elected mayor became mayor of Nijmegen. In contrast to his principles he was selected by the queen and not elected by the people. Did Thom change his mind, is it then better that the mayor has been elected by the queen?.....Did he need a job? Or was his principle, the case he fight for, not that important? In this perspective it is not strange that people lose their faith in politicians. They are able to change their views and principles completely in a couple of months.

Prof. Dr. Postma on spotting fake paintings, A.I. and face recognition

ARTificial Intelligence - Prof. Dr. Eric Postma teaches about Artificial Intelligence at the University of Tilburg, one of his recent studies focuses on using computer vision techniques to detect fake paintings. In this interview we discuss this study as well as other topics that he works on that go beyond using computer vision for just paintings. One of these techniques is Facial Expression Recognition, to allow the computer to detect the nonverbal cues that humans make while interacting. One of the goals is to allow computers to engage in a nonverbal dialog with the user. For those interested in AI and Computer Vision be sure to check out the interview!

For more information about Prof. Dr. Postma and what he's currently working on take a look at; http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/nl/webwijs/show/?uid=e.o.postma

To see the interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RGO2doBMr8

Return on investment of Marketing communication

As a company it is important to produce products  what consumers really want to buy. These products should fit to the consumer needs and wishes, so the products should be reasonable priced, the quality should be important and off course the functionalities and the design of the product are important. However, when a company produces a product what really fits to the needs of the consumer it is important to be known as a company. Therefore, marketing communication is really important. There are different types of marketing communication, like TV advertising, promotional leaflets, exhibitions, a website etc.. Almost every company uses marketing communication, what costs a reasonable amount of money. However, what is the specific revenue of these activities? One of the main difficulties of marketing communication is the calculation of the return on investment (ROI) of the activity. What will be the profit of an activity after deduction of the full costs?
There exist several models to calculate these figures, however with these models it is still not easy. Which consumer buys due to the activity or would he bought the product without the activity too? This is what it makes difficult to calculate the ROI of an activity. You have to be aware of the fact that the type of marketing communication  influences the accountability of it.  
Marketing communication wherefore it is reasonable easy to calculate the ROI is by example when vouchers are used. Then it is clear which consumers bought the product due to the marketing communication activity.
In the contrary, exhibitions costs a lot of money, and it is not clear which consumers bought  the product due to the visit of the exhibition. Then it is really difficult to calculate the ROI of the activity.
So, marketing communication is a really important tool for a company and needs to be used. However,  it is not easy to calculate the ROI what makes it a sort of a controlled gamble and therefore you have to be aware of the ROI all the time (logical reasoning).
 oHoweH

Persuasive communication in vocational development.

Last week I worked at an exhibition called Skills Masters. During three days students compete to become the best cook, electrician, mechanic etc. Each stand represent a trade or business and so I had to work on the OBIT stand, what represent the installation trade. Several MBO and VMBO students fight to be the best heating installer, roof builder, bathroom installer etc of the Netherlands. During this competition the exhibition is visited by schools and their students. These students are between 12 and 15 years old and have to choose their study direction. The Skills Masters exhibition shows all possible studies and every exhibitor tries to inform and persuade the students to choose the presented studies.
Students visit the exhibition with their school and will separated in groups of 10 persons. Every group get a ‘tour guide’ and these guides ensure that the students will visit all stands. At each stand there are employees who will guide the students through the stand and tell them about the studies represented.  It sounds like a very good an useful method to inform the students about the study opportunities they have, but there seems to be a contradiction between reality and theory.

However, to communicate you need a sender and a receiver. Walking on the exhibition you can see that all senders did their work very well, but their success depends on the interaction between sender and receiver, so the receiver is really important to succeed. During my work on the exhibition it was clear to me that most of the receivers are not interested in the information and are not listening to the tour guides. A small amount of information the exhibitor want to communicate to the students will be received and so all the effort has less success.  All these companies and trade representatives tries to inform and persuade the children, they put a lot of effort in the exhibition but what will be the outcome of all this? In my opinion the outcome of the exhibition is minimal, simply because it seems the receiver is not interested in the information.

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)

Computer mediated communication is communication by the computer. Some examples of this type of communication are MSN, E-mail but also Dating-Sites and social network sites. Since internet became normal in every household and so everybody has access to these technologies our communication has changed. The good-old Face to Face communication now has to compete against all these computer types of communication. However, are these new communication technologies a step forward or backwards? Researchers developed different theory’s, some researches think face to face communication is still the best form of communication. Other researchers think that the computer mediated communication is the best form of communication.

In my opinion both types has their advantages and off course disadvantages. Face to Face communication is mostly verbal and non-verbal. Computer mediated communication is mostly text based communication and then it is only verbal communication, but the latest technologies made it possible to communicate non-verbal too (skype/webcam/sending pictures). By Face to Face communication it is possible to share more information in a shorter time, however 
research shows that people share more intimacy in computer mediated communication than in Face to Face communication. Two conflicting theories about computed mediated communication is the rich-get-richer theory and the poor-get-richer theory. People who communicate easy in Face to Face situations are helped by CMC and so, the richer people get richer. Other researches think that people who communicate not very ease in Face to Face situations are helped to communicate by CMC. In my opinion both of the theories are true. The rich will get richer, but also the poor will get richer because they can communicate anonymous, and only when they want to communicate and to people they want to communicate with.

Overall, I think CMC is a very useful type of communication what can help a lot of people to communicate to their friends and to new people. I would say it is a rich type of communication because of all its advantages. However, be careful because in several occasions people can swap their identity.

User Interfaces throughout the years

User interface design  is the design of computers, appliances, machines, mobile communication devices, software applications, and websites with the focus on the user's experience and interaction. The goal of user interface design is to make the user's interaction as simple and efficient as possible, in terms of accomplishing user goals, what is often called user-centered design. Good user interface design facilitates finishing the task at hand without drawing unnecessary attention to itself. Graphic design may be utilized to support its usability. The design process must balance technical functionality and visual elements (e.g., mental model) to create a system that is not only operational but also usable and adaptable to changing user needs.
Not only the nature evolves like Darwin said, but also user interfaces evolves throughout the years. Like the pedals in a car. Nowadays we know to find the accelerator, brake and clutch pedal because in every car is it on the same place. However, in the early years of the development of the car the pedals were not common placed in every car. In some cars the accelerator was placed  in the left, sometimes in the middle or in the right. It was not sure!
The Wright brothers, who developed a first flying plane, had to control 28 functions on their plane. Nowadays in the Airbus’ and Boeings you will find hundreds of functions controlled by systems or by the pilot itself. The cockpits are full of technology to let the pilot be able to control all these systems.

Another great example of interfaces in the past is the Citroen DS. This was a shock in the history of the production of the car. This car had an hydraulic system what helps breaking, steering, used the clutch, ensured the car height and caused high suspension comfort. However, this system was hard to handle when you drove at the first time in the car, so Citroën decided to let the car-salesman drive the car with the customer seated next to the salesman. Nowadays we can’t imagine that something like that will happen. Ergonomics became so important that every car designed nowadays looks quite the same inside, everybody knows where to find the buttons and how to handle the car. This all related to the evolution of user interface designs, evolution in the past, but also in the future.

Livestream NEC- Utrecht

Livestream NEC-Utrecht

http://www.fromsportcom.com/v-0/18/194/v-199527.html

Livestream PSV - Ajax

Live stream PSV- Ajax

http://www.fromsportcom.com/v-0/18/198/v-199930.html

Subjective perception

Perception

Perception is not objective, it is even very subjective. Today I discovered a good example of the subjectivity of perception. On Marktplaats we saw an advertisement about an Citroen DS Break. According the owner it was a good car, even a very good car, so called ‘concoursstaat’. However, the reality and the description on marktplaats shows a big difference. Yes, the paint was nice, no rust, but in the front the car leaked (2 liters water inside), the interior was not that nice, and the engine made a strange noise and run on 3 cylinders. Is that what a very good car should looks like? Is that a car what has been restored totally two years ago? Is that an example of ‘concoursstaat’?  In our opinion it is not, but according the perception of the seller it is! Strange..... but a clear example of the fact that a perception is subjective.

(Now we have to look further to find a good Citroen DS break, because it still is a nice Ghostbusters car;))

Propaganda: A part of history?

While reading documents of the Second World War during the History lessons you could see the power of communication. Nowadays we know the stories from all the possible angles but back in that days the people knew just a small part of the story. And this small part was mostly based on propaganda. The Nazi’s even had a minister of Propaganda to  communicate successful stories to the German population but also to communicate to other nations. In these days Propaganda was a very important and useful tool to get the crowd shared behind you, because there was less communication and so nobody could control the facts and the stories you told them.

However, there had been some developments what makes Propaganda a less easy tool to use. All over the world are journalists, they film everything and the same day this information can be broadcasted on the other end of the world. Nowadays a lot of people are using social network sites, everybody has an camera on his phone so all information can be send throughout the world in just a few minutes. However not everybody seems to understand the difficulty of Propaganda.

A very well-known example of failed Propaganda was a minister of information in Iraq. I think most of the people remember Al Sahaf the minister of Information of Iraq. He was the man who told the whole world that no American has crossed the border yet, there weren’t any Americans in their country and at that moment you could hear bombs falling in the background.

Last week an example of bad propaganda was seen in North-Africa. Khadafy’s television station broadcasted some peaceful pictures while the BBC broadcasted the picture  of thousands people shouting against the regime, cars were on fire, and you saw the army firing on their own population.

Due to the technical developments what means that information can be send into the world by everybody and can be received by everybody means that Propaganda is a part of history?

Companies use Social Media, do not blame it!

Since the day the computer was introduced in the work scene the productivity of the employees increased enormously . Typing text could be done significantly quicker, images and schedules could be made far more easily so it was an enormous evolution in the way of working in the companies.
Also communication became more directly and faster by using email, intranet and other type of communication tools possible due to the computer. Companies got the opportunity to be on the internet, to create an own website, interact with their employees and customers.
However, nowadays some of the managers seems to forget all these advantages and they only see the disadvantages of the use of the computer and the internet. They complain about their employees using the internet, complain about the employees visiting their social websites and private mail. In the contrary, the managers should be happy with all these developments. Think about all the  opportunities  of social network websites  for marketing communication outcomes. Let your employees relax for an moment, it will increase their productivity afterwards! And even almost 90% of  the managers use social network sites to screen potential and recent employees.
Therefore, managers should not see only the disadvantages but have to create advantages out of the newest technologies!

Creativity will be rewarded!

When a company produces a product or provides a service it is very important to let the consumer know that you exist! Every company has several options to communicate their message about  their  product and service to the consumer.
This all is about Marketing communication. Advertisements on the television, on the radio, however nowadays new  media are getting much more important. The use of internet in marketing communication solutions is very useful because it is an interactive type of marketing and also very direct. You have to possibility to increase your knowledge about the  consumer (interaction)  and by using this knowledge you can specify your communication to an individual. So you will invest in more direct and useful marketing (no waste like by the old fashioned  methods on television or radio)
Another very attractive marketing communication tool is Free Publicity. Use news-items related to your company, events, product innovations and several other subjects to communicate for free. Also creative activities like (De Bavaria Dames) generate a lot of Free Publicity.  
So be creative and focus on new marketing technologies (use of internet) and Free Publicity. Your communication budget will be spend much better rewarded.

Content difficulty or something else.....?

I have discovered a new difficulty in my study. Till now the content of the different colleges was sometimes hard to follow, difficult or uninteresting, but the speakers knew how to made the subject interesting and in the end we were able to understand the subject due to the explanations of the speaker.
But frow now on, everything has been changed. Not the content is difficult anymore, no, the content has been made difficult and uninteresting, not because it is a hard subject or uninteresting subject, no the speaker knows exactly how to NOT motivate us. By using all difficult words he knows (has he got something to proof?), by using very good non motivated communication skills  and finally by making the subject very abstract. But why would he do this? Does he want to show us that he is a reasonable smart person , is he afraid of losing his job so he don't want to let us understand something about his colleges. I don't get this, because in my opinion the definition of a smart person is a person who can clearify hard topics in an easy language/way. Why would he demotivate us, why would he make his college not to understand?......

Op blogger...

Daar zit je dan vanochtend om 8.45uur op de universiteit, krijg je te horen dat je je op twitter en blogger aan moet melden. Achja, als kuddedier zijnde doe je het maar netjes, en zie hier het resultaat. Het eerste nietszeggende blogje, maarja, aanwezigheid is aangetoond en daar gaat het tot nu toe even om!