Companies' action during disaster relief

On the evening of 13 November 2015, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks occurred in Paris. Hundreds of people died or wounded in the Paris Attacks (BBC, 2015). It can be regard as the worst terrorist attack after 911.

After the attacks many large tech companies lent a helping hand during the disaster relief. Facebook activated its safety check feature which let users know whether their friends or family members are safe in Paris. More than 4 million people used the tool to let their friends and family know they were safe and 360 million users received notifications that their friends were okay. Twitter helped people find shelter with the hashtag #PorteOuverte and constant updates the information (Daily mail, 2015). Meanwhile Google, Skype, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Uber and Airbnb offer free service to France (Time, 2015).

It is important for companies to take actions during disaster relief. Not only because of CSR, but also because they can reach good reputation and customer loyalty by satisfying customer’s emergency physiological and safety needs (Solomon, 2013). Also, Twitter gave customers a platform to meet self-actualization needs through helping other people.

References:

1.    BBC (2015) Paris attacks: What happened on the night [Internet] Available from: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34818994> [Accessed 17 November 2015]

2.    Wolff-Mann, E. (2015) These Companies Are Offering Free Services to Help After Paris Attacks. Time [Internet] Available from: <http://time.com/money/4114313/paris-attacks-companies-helping-free-services/> [Accessed 17 November 2015]

3.    Zolfagharifard, E. (2015) Facebook activates 'Safety Check' feature for people in Paris as Twitter users tweet #PorteOuverte to offer shelter to those affected by attacks. Daily mail [Internet] Available from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3318085/Are-friends-safe-Facebook-rolls-Safety-Check-wake-Paris-attacks-Twitter-users-offer-shelter-affected.html [Accessed 17 November 2015]

4.    Solomon, M.R. 2013, Consumer behavior: buying, having, and being, 10th, Global edn, Pearson Education, Boston, Mass;London

Mirrors are helpful for sensory marketing

Mirrors are helpful for sensory marketing

                                                                                                       By Vergil Dai

Nowadays Sensory Marketing is widely be used to attract people’s attention and create special experience. Meanwhile mirrors are commonly used in daily life. But only a part of people understand the proper use of mirror can be helpful for house decorating and sensory marketing.

It is mainly based on the illusion effect of expanded space that caused by mirrors.

As for sensory marketing in small restaurant and store, the owner can placed a large mirrors as one of the walls. As a result it can make the space of store seems bigger than it really is. It can also make people to illustrate about there are double amount of customers in the space, which could be used for conformable psychology of consumer.

As for sensory marketing in large size such as exhibition or product launch, mirrors can be used not only for illusion effect of expanded space but also for other factors. Firstly, it can help the organizer to manage the light in the venue by using reflection of mirrors. Secondly, mirrors can create a feeling of elegance and modern which is suitable for some fashion event. Thirdly, the use of mirrors to replace the common materials like wood and metal will bring participants new felling and experience. By the way, using mirrors in product launch benefit to show the product comprehensively.

On the other hand, people need to pay attention to how to use mirrors properly. If there are too many mirrors, it will also make participants fell uncomfortable.

Shanghai Disneyland and experiential marketing

                             Shanghai Disneyland and experiential marketing

As the list of every day events has been decided Shanghai Disneyland entered the final preparation stage. (Shanghai Daily, October 19 2015)

Disneyland is always be linked to happy experience. Therefore Disneyland is a typical sample for good experiential marketing. Experiential marketers view consumers as rational and emotional human beings who willing to gain pleasurable experiences (Schmitt 1999).

There are some examples mentioned in Be Our Guest include:

1.    Turning around misfortune: When a young child wait with a parent to go on a ride but find out not meet the height limit, Disney staff are permitted to hand out a special pass to the child that allows to skip to the front of the line of next ride.

2.    Ending the experience strong: Tram drivers in Disney will keep a simple list of what rows they work each morning which help guests to know what location they parked in and find their cars when leaving.

3.    Fulfilling unique needs: Disney created Special Assistance passes and train employees to identify and fulfill the needs of disabled guests without invasive questions.

Shanghai Disneyland will have world's longest parade, biggest Disney's castle and biggest Disney shop. Because of the increasingly demand of experiential marketing nowadays, whether Shanghai Disneyland will be successful or not depend on its service and experience provided.

According to the news before, Shanghai Disneyland already decide to provide wedding service for customers in the Disney's castle. It is actually a smart move. Meanwhile much still remains to be done.

Reference:

1.    Schmitt, B. (1999), Experiential Marketing. Journal of Marketing Management. Taylor & Francis Group

2.    Yang, J. (2015), Shanghai Disney to have world's longest parade. Shanghai Daily [Internet] Available from: < http://www.shanghaidaily.com/metro/Shanghai-Disney-to-have-worlds-longest-parade/shdaily.shtml> [Accessed 19 October 2015]

3.    Gregory, C. (2014) How Disney Creates Magical Experiences (and a 70% Return Rate). Helpscout [Internet] Available from: <http://www.helpscout.net/blog/disney-customer-experience/> [Accessed 19 October 2015]