Janice M Goehler

This is a very relevant topic – I also touched on this in my last post. Retailers are definitely having to make the digital plunge if they haven’t already! Weirdly, I also listed some facts about Walmart in my post. Did you know they topped $10 billion in ecommerce action alone for the first time ever just by the second quarter of this year? I think many people overlook Walmart as being a digital maven but they are really making moves, from being a player in the Tik Tok acquisition, to adjusting their business model and going head to head with Amazon.

There will definitely be a behavioral shift once “a new normal” comes around. It will be interesting to see if contactless buying behaviors stay the same or decrease, and if so, by how much?

Thanks for posting this Janice! You bring up a good point about the pandemic that I haven’t thought about – the lasting effects on brick and mortar shops. It has been almost 8 months now that we’ve been living with COVID-19. The lifestyle changes that seemed so drastic back in March have become habitual. In my opinion, some of the new habits we have are going to last. For example, I can see myself wearing masks in public and being a little extra with the hand sanitizer for the rest of my life. However, as a lover of small businesses/cute mom and pop shops, I really hope that people eventually go back to in-person retail. While some stores have been able to adjust to this new touchless/digital world, some won’t be able to survive unless people come back into the store in person. I guess we shall see what happens – especially as COVID cases rise and threatens to shut things back down again.

As the big companies continue to compete with each other they start looking more and more alike. Walmart is getting more digital and Amazon is getting more real world. Do you think there will come a day when one buys the other to dominate both worlds? Or are they too big for either one to make a move on the other?

As a person who loves to shop in person, this pandemic has really changed things for me and many others. As I’ve gotten used to shopping online these past couple of months, I do see the benefit and often wished more local businesses moved to e-commerce. Post-covid, I do agree with you that online shopping will likely to continue to increase as we have become accustomed to it. As more and more businesses move to e-commerce, it will be interesting to see what other products and services they will use to stay relevant and profitable.

This is a very interesting post and topic! Data privacy is and will continue to be a huge concern among everyone. I too as a marketer go back and forth on just how ethical it is and where is that line. I like that you brought up “The Social Dilemma”. I was definitely aware of most of the concerns talked about but it was interesting getting a deeper look into the backend and hearing about it firsthand from the people who worked at these companies!

You are also right that we are taught be be trailblazers , but social media sort of proves the opposite. I guess you can label yourself as a trailblazer or follower based on which side of the social media algorithm you’re on. If you are doing something innovative, influential and have a bunch of followers, you wouldn’t necessarily agree with the first part of your post.

The extremist factoid about Facebook is alarming but makes sense. In my last post from this class, I linked an article where a study on Facebook from 2018 confirmed that their algorithms are meant to be divisive and polarizing. http://www.npr.org/2020/05/27/860369744/social-media-usage-is-at-an-all-time-high-that-could-mean-a-nightmare-for-democr

You make a lot of good points! I think that on the small scale, “Influencer Marketing” is actually pretty useful from the marketing standpoint. It’s easiest to provide people with products that fulfil their needs if we are able to pinpoint exactly what resonates with each individual consumer. However, I do think it’s been taken too far at this point. I watched “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix too, and it’s easy to see how dangerous this kind of marketing is when put into the wrong hands. I even notice how my own social media can feel like an echo chamber if I don’t go looking for differing opinions. Additionally, especially in 2020 when we are largely trapped inside, people are on their phone so much that their opinions are being shaped by their own echo chambers. I’m not surprised to hear about the rise in extremist groups because it seems like all of the media we are fed by our algorithms is meant to be divisive and get us riled up. I absolutely think that something needs to be done about this from an ethical standpoint or things are just going to keep getting worse.

Insightful post Janice! I miss those days too but since I am a social media marketer I also appreciate the business side of the industry and the level of targeting. I definitely think many of us need to find balance between what we do online, and what we share. After watching “The Social Dilemma” it definitely made me feel less secure about the information I am sharing and what is already out there – but it wasn’t necessarily anything we didn’t know before. Although it’s definitely frightening to hear from professionals who used to work for those exact companies!

Data privacy has become a huge concern of mine in the past few years. However, like you I am very excited about the marketing potential of all this. As odd as it may sound, I think AI can be the answer. If we develop AIs that pull all our personal data from the information and assign it random names, this none attributable information can now be utilized by anyone. You would need an AI to do this because people input information into social media in all kinds of different ways. The system would have to learn how to identify different pieces of personal information to ensure it is pulling everything off.

This was interesting Janice. I understand where you come from that as a marketer, you need users’ data in order to create useful ads. But, at the same time, we all are skeptical on why apps are free, and we see it why because our data is more valuable than a couple of dollars. I also found it interesting how the terms and conditions page always was so long but so small for people to read. I guess those small words really do hold alot of power, especially our data and privacy. I wonder what’s going to happen in the future with how apps manage and use our data after all these privacy rules.

Janice, awesome post! As I did research on my own post, I started to realize more and more how important our personal data is and how companies are taking advantage of it. To address your question on what they’re doing with our location data and internet address, I believe companies are using that information to build profiles on us. What we like and collect our habits online so that they can market to us.

Great Post Janice. I liked the point you made about how it’s not right that third parties were able to access user info through Facebook. It amazes me that companies are able to collect all this data and users don’t really have an idea of who has it nor what info they store. I also wonder why Tic Tok needs consumer addresses. I don’t know how an address could help Tic Tok because they don’t send users tangible items. Maybe that’s something to come in the near future for them.

Janice you make a really great point when you stated that “most users of these apps do not even read all of the terms and conditions that apply, most are just eager to get started.” I can admit that I am sometimes guilty of clicking permissions without fully reading the terms and conditions of the website or application. I believe this may be because of how long and confusing the language is. This makes me think that it may be more beneficial for the terms and conditions to be changed to a more simplified and digestible version for users. This could mean writing shorter summaries, adding pictures for clarity and even video versions of the terms. This is all wishful thinking but I know that I would pay more attention if these changes were made. Great post!

You bring up a great point about splitting hairs between “giving out data” and “giving out access to data”. I am sure that is some kind of legal distention that keeps Facebook, and many other companies, out of courts. However, I do not see these big companies changing their practices until the economy of the situation changes. They make so much money off our data that they have no incentive to change. Until it becomes too costly for them, or a more lucrative option comes along, to sell our data we are kind of stuck.

I have seen these robots in Giant and I find them very freaky! I believe I had previously heard (in my local grocer) that their presence was (somehow) able to prevent theft/shoplifting. However, after reading your article, I realize how many different applications these robots could have. If robots are programmed with a store’s layout, they would very easily be able to shop virtually for people if requested. They might even do this better and more efficiently than someone from an app like Instacart – they wouldn’t waste time trying to figure out where products are. Pandemics like COVID-19 show us how important it is for people to be able to get their groceries without having to leave their homes. As the popularity in grocery delivery/pick-up services increases, these robots and accompanying AI technology could be a game changer in how quickly people get their order.

I’ve seen these in the Giant markets, and actually thought it was cool, and hope these robots expand more on the technically side of what they can do (customer shopping, instacart, etc.). Seeing them in person I thought these robots were sort of “big”, reminding me of when my father bought his first car phone, and if overtime will the look and technology of these robots get better, smaller, smarter and sleeker.

Thank you for point out what these things were, it’s only a matter of time until we have some ex machinas walking around. Katherine’s idea of an app is a great one. I often find myself wondering if we could’ve repurposed Google Glasses with voice assistant to enhance the shopping experience. I would love to be able to walk into an grocery store, strap on those glasses and it guide me down the most efficient path for my shopping rather than wandering the aisles.