Video games

A form of digital media that is constantly is video games. These are often targeting by the media and reputation is constantly tested and questioned. This is mostly after disasters such as shootings the media looks to video games that are either violent or popular. The hugely popular Pokemon has been accused of being satanic, encouraging animal abuse, encouraging gambling and racial stereotyping. This is because it is often viewed as an easy target by many different groups as research into video game effects is relatively new with not many definite answers. A recent controversy that hit the headlines was one of the best selling call of duty games that featured a terrorist attack on attack on an airport. This was talked about for weeks globally, the designer of the level Mohammad Alavi told the press "It isn't really relevant whether that makes you enjoy the entertainment experience even more because you're being naughty (à la Grand Theft Auto) or it engrosses you further into the story and makes you resent your actions. What's relevant is that the level managed to make the player feel anything at all." This gave the Call of duty franchise and the whole video game industry a bad reputation and often gets blamed along with grand theft auto for violent news stories. However there is discussion that it is no worse than what is made in Hollywood and that in counties with high violent video game content there is no rise.

Redbull

One company in particular that performs very well on digital media is Redbull. As Redbull is often identified as a youth energetic brand so a strong digital media presence is vital to win youth customers over with 100% of the younger generation have been on the internet in their lifetime. With their heavy sponsorship of many sporting events it lead them to create an advertisement that included both these elements and achieved 19 million views. This was passed around social media as less of an advertisement but more of a 'cool' video that seemed less the company trying to force its brand and energetic reputation on people but rather making them do it themselves. In January alone last year Redbull's Youtube channel achieved an extra 250,000 subscriber's. They are usually considered one of the best if not the best at online campaigns, especially when it comes to online videos with around 7 videos a week posted. Another event that gained Redbull a huge amount of exposure was the Felix Baumgartner world record free-fall. This was seen all over the world with a large amount of news coverage that furthered Redbull's reputation in digital media.

Tesco Horsemeat

A scandal that we all remember from last year was the horse meat scandal. This was when it was found that products in Tesco had contained horsemeat but was being sold as beef, specifically there burgers on sale were 29% horse meat. This whole story was handled very badly on Tesco's twitter page.

This tweet went out after the horse meat scandal had been exposed it had been scheduled to go out so even with the extreme circumstances it still went out. This was Tesco not being reactive to the situation, the next few hours after this was spent by Tesco apologies to what seemed all of twitter.

This was very unprofessional by Tesco's digital media team as it gave the image that they had no coordination with the rest of the organisation and no clear idea of how to run their social media. This flaw in digital media gave Tesco bad press in a time that its reputation was tested. It also led to this video that was passed around the internet that kept appearing to haunt Tesco. As well as this many jokes and parodies were passed around in the week that involved Tesco all over twitter of which Tesco did not handle to the best of its ability. With digital media developing more and more is needed to be successful.

Creating a reputation

The last post discussed the importance of a company's reputation and ways to monitor and measure reputation to become more reactive. As soon as a company begins it is important to establish it self and its reputation. Business in focus magazine again explains? 1.Establish trust – Keeping your word no matter what in terms of providing services, paying vendors when they are due, and keeping promises to customers. This will help solidify and build credibility with customers. 2.Be responsive – Return calls and answer emails promptly, letting the customer know their importance to you and your organization. 3.Resolve errors and mistakes – Never make excuses or place blame on the customer if it is an issue that is the fault of you or the company. An irate customer can become your biggest ally if you make an effort to resolve errors or mistakes as quickly as possible. 4.Offer value – Offering free services to loyal customers and paying attention to details and preferences of the customer can go a long way towards establishing your company’s reputation in the market. 5.Be sensitive to privacy – With rampant identity theft and hacking, being aware of the sensitive nature of financial information is more important than ever. 6.Become technologically savvy – Demonstrating a proficiency in technology can add to the reputation of a company and is critical to being perceived as a competent and capable business. Computers, software, voicemail, websites, and social media sites must be kept up to date. 7.Communicate effectively and transparently – Correspondence such as letters, emails, voicemails and other methods of communication should be direct and to the point. Use correct spelling and grammar and leave contact information for the customer and company information such as full name, address, phone, fax, website URL, toll-free number, hours and other vital information – is displayed in prominent location. 8.Maintain a polished and professional website – Having a clean, up-to-date, professional website is absolutely vital today, regardless of the type or size of business. 9.Community Service – Generosity to local organizations such as non-profits can go a long way toward building and establishing the reputation of your organization. Community service can include providing a service pro bono or donating money, time or food for an event or fundraiser.



There is extra needed to create an online reputation in the form of-
 Assigning responsibility – As a business leader, you must trust someone to have the ability to become the “face” for the organization on a social networking website. Choose someone who will have the time to dedicate toward updating and maintaining the social networking site as well as responding to customer inquiries or complaints.Keep your staff informed and educated – Give your staff an idea of what can and cannot be said on social networking sites as well as keeping them aware of the latest marketing and communication campaigns or any sort of company policy that will be implemented that will have an impact on the customers. Keep each division and all staff members aware of each other so the message that will be disseminated will be consistent to the mission and “voice” of the company. Be responsive in times of crisis – As Gemma Craven, EVP of Ogilvy PR’s 360 Digital Influence team says, “It’s no longer the Golden Hour, but the Golden Minute. Lack of a well-crafted, well-meaning response could cost you.” Creating numerous social media sites has given customers multiple options to voice their opinions – either negative or positive – about your company. Taking ownership of your social media sites will give you the control you need to manage the conversation and quickly respond to feedback. Monitoring and responding to customers and resolving issues quickly will go a long way toward establishing a positive reputation for your organization.
Establish your online reputation – When a potential customer searches online for the name of your company, your business should be on the first page. In addition, social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn should also be on there once those sites are created and established. Creating a strong online presence is essential for an organization to establish its brand and maintain its reputation.



http://www.businessinfocusmagazine.com/2012/10/the-importance-of-business-reputation/

Reputation Management

As reputation is becoming increasingly important and with its volatile nature there has been a rise in awareness in its management. There are now specific companies that can be paid to manage reputation or rebuild from a scandal and prevent it from happening in the future. As reputation is an intangible it is difficult to judge its importance and with the internet and digital media information flows very quick, what would take hours to pass around can be done in a blink of an eye to thousands. Bad feedback and word of mouth, react poorly to scandal and a company being viewed as "shady" or attempting to hide or twist the truth. to measure the importance of reputation business in focus magazine tells us 1.Ethics: the organization behaves ethically, is admirable, is worthy of respect, and is trustworthy. 2.Employees/workplace: the organization has talented employees, treats its people well, and is an appealing workplace. 3.Financial performance: the organization is financially strong, has a record of profitability, and has growth prospects. 4.Leadership: the organization is a leader rather than a follower, and is innovative. 5.Management: the organization is well managed, has high quality management, and has a clear vision for the future. 6.Social responsibility: the organization recognizes social responsibilities, and supports good causes. 7.Customer focus: the organization cares about and is strongly committed to customers. 8.Quality: the organization offers high quality products and services. 9.Reliability: the organization stands behind its products and services, and provides consistent service. 10.Emotional appeal: it is an organization I feel good about, is kind, and is fun. This has to be measured to see in which areas can be improved to hopefully improve reputation and therefore have this lead to increased profit. Digital media has again changed how reputation management, a very popular and useful tool is Google alerts. This informs the company when they are mentioned online , this means the company can see what is being said about them both positively and negatively so reaction can be quicker- this is especially important with digital media speeding the process up. Social media pages for the specific company can be used in the same way. This has become more and more important as there is far more purchasing online in this day and age and this is likely to be reduced if the company has a reputation of for example not delivering on time or not delivering at all then the person e-mails or enters a live chat and receives poor customer service. The individual then posts this on Facebook for a large audience which in turn convinces them not to choose that company in future purchases.


http://www.businessinfocusmagazine.com/2012/10/the-importance-of-business-reputation/

Heartbleed

A very recent issue that has had an effect on almost all websites even giants such as google and Facebook. It has been described as "the worst vulnerability found (at least in terms of its potential impact) since commercial traffic began to flow on the Internet." by Joseph Steinburg a Writer for Forbes. The problem arose when a piece of software known as OpenSSL that encrypts data from a computer to a website to keep information getting passed safe. It means that information can be stolen such as passwords and usernames that are still on the website server without anyone even knowing it was taken. Jose Andrade explains the name "Heartbleed exploits a built-in feature of OpenSSL called heartbeat. When your computer accesses a website, the website will respond back to let your computer know that it is active and listening for your requests: This is the heartbeat."This didn't damage a specific companies reputation but rather all company's as faith has been lost on purchasing online due to panic that details are not safe. This was particularly dangerous as anyone with a bit of reading could access data from websites with OpenSSL. Many people are already cautious about purchasing online and even giving any form of details so this recent news story telling the public that it was relatively easy to steal details through this OpenSSL gave people more reason to be cautious.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/josephsteinberg/2014/04/10/massive-internet-security-vulnerability-you-are-at-risk-what-you-need-to-do/

http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/12/heartbleed-explained/

Moving successfully with the digital age

Now that a large amount of companies are now online according to pew research it makes it extremely difficult to survive as an organisation without the edge of the digital community. Companies that initially refused to accept digitally as the way forward have now seen sense or are now not existent. A prime example of  this is the video rental company Blockbuster which filed bankruptcy in 2010. This was due to the fact that they kept their videos offline when other companies allowed live steaming and more convenience by ordering online or online rental. As there was more availability getting films online on demand it defeated the point of going all the way down to a shop to rent out. This meant that customers quickly stopped going to the traditional store leading to Blockbusters bankruptcy.

As there is so many businesses online it makes it more difficult for a company to get itself out there and run a successfully digital media campaign. This was done very successfully by Starbucks in a campaign to promote itself through its consumers by giving free coffees in return for one person gifting it to another meaning that at least 2 people are effected by the promotion with more if they see the tweet when scrolling. This campaign was highly successful even though it is only a beta there has already been 180,000 dollars in purchases and with more than 54,000 people have now linked their mobile phones to their twitter and customer IDs meaning there is an opening for research. As well as this the online reputation of Starbucks is improved and the identity online is also established. It gives Starbucks a modern image by the use of different forms of technology as well as promoting itself to a mass audience as a high quality product that gives 'freebies'. It has built this successful reputation by using the 5 objective when developing the campaign. The 5 objectives are sell, serve, speak, save and sizzle. Furthermore they have made it sticky and shareable.

How many of us use digital media

With the world of 2014 being in the information era it is no question that digital media as become the life-blood of our society Zhao & Lin & Lui (2011) tells us when talking about specifically social media “The emergence of these websites has significant social impact and has profoundly changed our daily life. Increasingly, people use the Internet as a social medium to interact with one another and expand their social circles, to share information and experiences, and to organize communities and activities.” The amount of us online is steadily growing as we become more literate and more are born with greater access than their predecessors. The Office for national statistics 2013 tells us that 100% of 16 to 44 year olds have used the internet but only 30% of 75+ have used the internet. This means in the next 20-30 years we could see close to 100% having access to the internet.

Most see that the internet as a fundamental Human right this is backed by a survey done by the BBC in 2010 as well as the image shown. Presently the internet is used for anything from information to gambling to socialisation. This means that there is very little in our life that cannot be influenced in some way digital media and is now becoming almost unavoidable as the percentage of us flying around the internet is increasing.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8548190.stm


ZHAO, H.V., LIN, W.S., LIU, K.J.R., 2011, Behaviour Dynamics in Media-Sharing Social Networks. New York: Cambridge University press

Monster

Following on from Capri-sun there is a similar case from the Monster Beverage Corporation where a man from Washington Iowa USA, Found a dead mouse lodged in the bottom of his monster can. At the time of this blog post 2,467,720 have viewed it on Youtube which have led to being passed around the internet via social media. This again greatly affected the reputation of Monster as it brought with it doubts about the hygiene standards of monsters production. The story states that there was no evidence of the mouse suffering trauma and poison or being forced into the can. So far Monster has not commented on and said they are aware of the story but do not believe the man in question. This is another example of as story that does not have irrefutable evidence but is still passed around digital media. Along with this there was also the case of a 14 year old girl dying after ingesting 2 cans of Monster energy drink Hall (2012) tells us when writing for the Independent "Ms Fournier died of a heart attack brought on by ‘caffeine toxicity’ after drinking two 24-ounce Monster cans - containing 240 milligrams of caffeine, or seven times the amount of the caffeine in a 12-ounce cola - on consecutive days in December 2011. An autopsy revealed the teenager, from Hagerstown, Maryland, died of cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity that impeded her heart's ability to pump blood. The medical examiner also found that she had an inherited disorder that can weaken blood vessels." This again meant that monster was under scrutiny again for health and safety. Since this was in many forms of digital media the amount of people viewed it greatly hurt the company's reputation.

The case of Capri-sun

The fruit juice company Capri-sun came under fire in the recently months for the Worm scandal, the story was first shown as a boy from the USA discovered a worm in his Capri-sun pouch. This story was not proved true but still was passed around sites such as Facebook and Twitter with many spins on the story and many different pictures of similar cases with no proof.

With this the reputation and quality of Capri-Sun was seriously questioned and therefore it had people too afraid to drink it due to thinking it was contaminated. This means that due to digital media such as social media and images being passed round, the reputation of the company that has taken years to build is instantly crumbled. After this came out rumours that Capri-Sun stated that in all cases it was due to mould , specifically bread mould not worms getting in through the straw entrance.
In an article for Wired a micro-biologist examined the contents of the juice to find that there was 5 different types of fungi in some cases.


To see Capri-Suns opinion I wrote a message to their main website asking their view on the bad press received on social media and if it had affected them but also to see their spin on it. The reply received was "Thank you for your email regarding the rumours that are circulating around social networking sites, claiming that Capri Sun pouches contain ‘worms’. The Facebook posts that we have been made aware of originated in California.  We can confirm that Capri Sun in California is manufactured by ‘Kraft foods’. Coca-Cola Enterprises manufactures the Capri Sun brand in Great Britain. The manufacturing practices and procedures at all of our factories are robust and of an industry leading standard and we assure you that product quality is very important to us at Coca-Cola Enterprises ". This is an example of how we live in a more global world a slight hitch in company reputation is broadcast globally.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-05/1/capri-sun-funghi

 

Why does Reputation matter as a selling point?

As mentioned before with todays more intelligent consumer companies now have moved from the sales Era of the 1920s-1950s where the company was just focused on the one sale then moved on. nowadays in the relationship/consumer to consumer Era there is a real focus on building a relationship with the consumer to make them brand loyal often for a long time. For this reputation is a key to keep the relationship and the consumer to keep purchasing. With the collapse of the economy banks have been trying to re-establish there trusted and establish a relationship with students and young adults as it is rare that people change banks. This means by having a good reputation to this age group by offering deals such as student accounts and generally more interest on that age group. This means that there is now a customer for life for decades. As banks have a reputation for providing deals for a younger age group they can tell each other through word of mouth and then proceed to go for that specific bank.

Another company that reputations sells is product is Apple. When buying apple products it is rare that people will question if the product if of good quality or if it is the most technologically advanced. Furthermore they have brand loyalty often people have an iphone and MacBook and continue to update as new more advance versions are made. Yoon et al (1993) tell us " a company's reputation reflects the history of its past actions ... and affects the buyer's expectations with respect to the quality of its offerings".  This means that since apple have constantly provided good quality offerings customers know quality is assured. This can be applied online as people in todays world look around the internet before purchase or ask on Facebook to see if the company they are buying from is good and if they are usually on time etc. Some of us when we look at Facebook see people complaining about a certain company and it turns us away from it. Digital media has changed this as before you would say it to one or two people now hundred's of friends can see it at once. It means that companies need to consider their reputation if they want their customers writing good reviews or returning.

Guffery, H. J., Kikewski, V., Yoon, E., 1993. The effects of information and company reputation on intentions to buy a business service. Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts


  

 

Auburn University

 

 

 

  

Introduction

This blog has been created as part of a digital media module in Robert Gordon University. This involves creating a blog that will discuss how many elements of the world have been influenced by digital media for better or for worse. As a Public Relations student I have decided to discuss how a companies reputation is influenced by digital media looking at both specific companies and parts that cover many companies. I chose the topic of company reputation and digital media as firstly it is relevant to public relations but also because  we live in a fast growing world in terms of technology and with social media turning into an everyday feature, a slight fault by a company can be broadcast globally and ruin the reputation of a company. on the other hand of this I will look at companies that use it successfully to improve sales and identity.

 I will look a number of examples on both ends of the scale from viral pictures spread around the world wide web to companies that has outstanding customer services and digital services have been passed from person to person. With todays more intelligent consumer; customer loyalty is a principle that is difficult to gain and very easily lost. It will look at how to create a reputation, who uses digital media well/poorly and why it is important.