Groupon! Another Online Business Success Story

Many of you have heard of Groupon (if not, click here for some info to put you up to date with the rest of the world ;). In fact, a few of just might even have bought a deal from this creative company. This past November Groupon turned down a $6 billion offer from Google, which got the attention of many individuals about the intentions of the management of this company. Nowadays, it looks like the company made the correct decision turning down that proposal because the company is planning on going public, and read this well, the IPO is estimated to be $25 billion.


The current concern of investors is if Groupon's price really reflects the ability of the company to generate profits. Current CEO Andrew Mason stated that they "have been talking to bankers about this IPO but nothing have been decided. One important aspect to emphasize is that in this past year Groupon has grown from 3 million users to over 500 million users in 40 countries.  This represents an amazing reach and the company's ability to really tap into some serious money. On the other hand, the critics comment that Groupon will face hard competition and their competitive advantage would have to come from effective segmentation (As effective marketers that we are, we know that this is key to any business). There are surely a lot of doubts regarding this topic to be resolved in the following months. Until then, just stay around for more information about this event.

Marketing is the key to success!

Ricardo Chuecos

The Pioneers of the Virtual World: Google and Facebook.

The competition of who comes up with the fastest and more convenient way of paying is intensifying. Google has now launched its new project to install NFC readers in several retailers throughout New York and San Francisco cities. These markets are going to be where Google tests the results of its new service. For those of you who do not know, NFC stands for Near Field Communication and these devices act as kind of credit card readers so you can pay at any location that has it with your phone (Taking in consideration that you have the app for it). Of course, this is still a work in process. For more information about this interesting topic you can click here

Now focusing more in social media it is time to talk about Facebook. This giant of social media keeps revolutionizing the world. This last month Facebook received a patent for a new search engine that combines the regular results of a search engines with the popularity of each result. This will allow you to see which are the most popular links and which ones are not. For the most part, this would aid companies and deals that are popular with the crowd and would make it very difficult for small companies to appear; nonetheless, Facebook is once again providing new ways to make a regular activity more social. For more information you can check out this link

Until next time

Marketing Rocks

Ricardo Chuecos

The Impacts of E-marketing in daily buying decision.

At the present, the majority of society with internet access has adapted its ways when buying a product.Now days once an individual has identified a need, he or she will go online most of the times to find information about what product to use to fulfill that necessity. Even though there are many other sources of information like own experiences or friends who are more knowledgeable in the matter, many will confirm that the internet can provide useful evidence to make your decision easier. E-Marketers have recognized this growing trend of consulting the internet and have learn to use what is called SEO and SEM to direct traffic into webpages. The pages with efficient SEO and SEM have a great advantages because they will get most of the traffic of costumers who are looking for specific products.

In addition, E-marketing is not only useful in the information search stage of the buying process. In fact, marketers can use e-marketing to touch consumers in every part of the buying process. After, having selected the product that one wants to buy, a costumer can buy the product online and lastly,following the acquisition of the item, the buyer can even give feedback in social networks about the performance on the product. It is important to manage e-marketing in a effective way because it is converting in a major force to push sales for many companies

Here is an example of how the companies that use SEO and SEM appear in search engines like google when an individual looks them up. The companies that appear inside the yellow square are using SEM so google can find them. With this I end my blog entry for today I hope you guys enjoy it.

Until next time, Marketing Rules!

Ricardo Chuecos

Social Media: A valuable Consumer Contact Point

There has been several debates around how to make the most out of this new trend of connecting online. The major issue for companies is how to present themselves to the consumers in the social media world and of course, how to tie these efforts in to actual sales.

While some companies have been able to do a good job performing online like the case of Nike and Toyota Latino . There still a lot of companies who do no have an notable online Appearance. Nonetheless, we will start to see more companies on Facebook and Twitter in the Future.

Another important point of the Social Media are the like buttons. People often associates the number of likes with the success of the webpage, which is not always a good measure.
In my opinion, the likes that internauts give to certain companies is just a way of expressing their taste to the online community. I believe that this becomes valuable as a way of informing people of what you like; therefore, acting as a consumer contact point between internet users and brands.

I would love to know your opinions and comments.

Until next time, Ricardo Chuecos.

The trends of future transactions

Starbucks Develops a Phone Application that Allows Consumers to Pay with their Cellphones

Many of you already have hear that one can pay at any Starbucks with probably one of the most beloved objects of the 21st Century: your smartphone. This has been a successful attempt to increase the sales of this corporation, which its stocks now are 40% higher than last year.


This move is certainly appealing to a more convenient payment manner. The idea is that while some people can forget their wallets at home, it is very rarely to find individuals that leaver their home without their cellphones; therefore, Starbucks is still able to serve this consumers and get more sales. There has been some debate about the velocity of this payment type. Some believe is faster to pay with you debit or credit card, and some believe that is faster to pay with you cellphone. Nonetheless, it is still to very early to tell. When a new technology is implemented, there is always an adoption time where people get accustom to using the new technology. This obviously hinders the quickness of the process at the beginning; however once people get used to the habit, one can start to see the benefits. For the technology enthusiasts, here is the link where you can download it.


Marketing Rules
Ricardo Chuecos