Charlotte Cunningham, MSc Digital Marketing Management student
One of the key areas to running a successful business is to ensure you understand the customer’s buying journey. The traditional marketing funnel has gone which has now been replaced by AIDA.
The fundamentals of the old and new marketing funnels are the same, however, the order and the tactics are completed in different ways. The old funnel was used to raise awareness around the new customer funnel and how to adapt to it.
There are many tools that can be used to establish the customer journey, however, AIDA is today’s modern digital marketing funnel.
AIDA is a well-known marketing model. It can be applied to everyday life of a business and is said to make a marketing communication plan affective.
What does AIDA stand for?
Awareness: creating brand awareness and association with a product or service.
Interest: creating interest around a service or product that benefits it by increasing the interest that encourages the customer to find out more about it.
Desire: by creating an emotional connection between the brand, product or service can move the customer to from liking it to wanting it.
Action: This moves the potential customer to interact with the brand, or even make the purchase.
HubSpot is a firm believer that AIDA is a proven framework, if AIDA is used within your content marketing, it will constantly engage, persuade and converts the watchers into buyers.
Are businesses using the Customer Funnel to their advantage?
The marketing that is being used by Graze creates an emotional connection with their viewers, as they use the AIDA framework. They have a call to action on their website when potential customers want to find out more information, this can encourage them to purchase and complete the action stage.
Aida has transformed digital marketing and digital marketing has transformed AIDA. However, Ralph Haberichsays that AIDA is too general, he says that it is outdated, there are apparently newer and better frameworks out there, such as RES and the 5 A’s. RES is apparently the new marketing funnel… do you agree?
Are people ready for change?
Change happens all the time, making a change in the marketing strategy should not be seen as bad. Making a change in your approach to marketing, can be the new model RES.
RES stands for Relevance, Engagement and Success.
The relevance part is apparently better than the A in AIDA, as the customer is already intrigued by the product or service, the relevance will also give an organisation a better chance of knowing what to do to get the customers involved.
The Engagement is key to create a powerful engagement the potential customers but having powerful engagement can set you above the competition. Engagement is meant to give more insights and power than the I and D in AIDA.
Success, the success differentiates itself from AIDA as it doesn’t just stop at the customer purchasing the product, but also upselling and ad on selling makes it a success, which then increases profitability with these extra additional products.
The 5A’s Framework stands for Aware, Appeal, Ask, Act and Advocate.
Aware: Consumers are passively aware of brands, their advertising and how it affects the influencers, friends and family.
Appeal: When consumers have seen the brands message/advert, they can create a connection to it, from just remembering what has been shown. If a brand is more memorable than another then consumers will forget previous brands. The consumers surroundings and peers have high influences the appeal of the brand. Which does relate to AIDA.
Ask: This is the section where consumers want to find out more about the brand, whether it’s from friends and family or the media. Consumers connect with each other and build relationships which can either strengthen or weaken the brand appeal.
Act: Not only does this cover the purchasing stage, but also how the product or service is used and what happens after the purchase i.e. leave feedback, happy with your product? Try and sell similar products.
Advocate: This stage shows the loyalty that can become from making a purchase. Whether it’s a consumer repurchasing their product and referring them to a friend.
The pros and the cons of the different marketing funnel need to be determined by the organisation or marketer, to see what work best. The different marketing funnels will have benefits to every organisation, it’s whether the marketer decides to stick with what they know or adapt to a new marketing funnel. The choice is yours….
Dr Ijeoma Onwumere , Lecturer, Staffordshire Business School
How
service quality affects students and its continuity has been a recent debate
phenomenon in Higher Education Institutions (HEI). The way student perceived
service quality has been a growing research interest in higher education (HE).
Service quality includes all form of services rendered to student in HE which can
be defined as a method of assessment that results from the evaluation of
customer expectations with perception of performance; in other words, with
regards to how customers really evaluate the services rendered.
Student perceptions of service, results from the comparison of expectations before service is received and the actual experience of that service. Therefore, the importance of service quality not only to HE but to all organisations cannot be neglected as it is regarded as a critical element of competitiveness through service superiority and differentiation. However, the question of what forms Service quality within the HE is a controversial one.
Services
are not marginal activities but must be acknowledged as an intrinsic part of a
society, which form an influential force in today’s global economic
development. Owing to high financial GDP contribution by students in HE which
leads to a progressive thriving economy in today’s competing environment. HEI
are more concerned with and continuously seek to develop the quality of service
of education that they provide to the student, firmly focusing on student
centric mission, guaranteeing assurance of student satisfaction and quality
provided. This is because students are now faced with eccentric challenges and
fee-paying student (international student) like other consumers are now
demanding attention to their student service and experience, greater value for
money, and wanting their voice to be heard. More so, irrespective of high cost
of fee, an institutional reputation can be improved by high performance of
services.
Therefore,
the need to understand how a student perceived the quality of service received
is quite essential for every institution. The reason being that when HEI
provide analyses and understand how student evaluate services, it may assist in
attracting and retaining student. Higher education sectors need to improve
their services, through consistent heightening of their service strength through
quality teaching, innovative facilities, pastoral care, improved customer
services in order to meet the needs, demands and expectations of their student
and maintain student satisfaction.
References
Dehghan,
A., Dugger, J., Dobrzykowski, D., & Balazs, A. (2014). The antecedents of
student loyalty in online programs. International Journal of Educational Management,
28(1), 15-35. doi:10.1108/IJEM-01-2013-0007
Kärnä,
S., & Julin, P. (2015). A framework for measuring student and staff
satisfaction with university campus facilities. Quality Assurance in education,
23(1), 47-66
Sally,
B. (2011). Bringing about positive change in the higher education student
experience: a case study. Quality Assurance in education, 19(3), 195-207.
doi:10.1108/09684881111158027
Sultan,
P., & Wong, H. Y. (2012). Service Quality in a Higher Education Context: An
Integrated Model (Received Emerald’s Award for Excellence 2013). Asia Pacific
journal of marketing and logistics, 24(5), 755-784.
Sultan,
P., & Wong, H. Y. (2013). Antecedents and consequences of service quality
in a higher education context: a qualitative research approach. Quality
Assurance in education, 21(1), 70-95.
Teeroovengadum,
V., Kamalanabhan, T., & Seebaluck, A. K. (2016). Measuring service quality
in higher education: Development of a hierarchical model (HESQUAL). Quality
Assurance in Education, 24(2), 244-258.
According to research collected
by We
Are Social, there are 3.53 billion social media users in 2019 with the
global total growing by 2.88 million since 2018. Mobile users remain the
dominant force with 3.26 billion people
using social media on mobile devices in January 2019- a growth of 297 million
new users representing a year-on-year increase of more than 10%.
Whilst the opportunities to utilise social media to expand
into new and existing customer bases remains abundant true success is based on
engaging with consumers, creating a strong relevant brand presence as well as
informative content is imperative.
So what are the benefits of
social media for building my brand?
With more than half
of the world’s population using social media it is a great place to reach
new and highly targeted new customers. The
notion that consumers only engage with brands they already know on social
media, is a common misconception as 60% of Instagram
users state that they have discovered new products on the platform.
As of January 2019 Instagram boasts 894.9
Million active users and compiles one of the highest audience engagement
rates. Despite the impressive statistics for Instagram it is not an ideal
marketing tool for every industry. Fashion, travel, beauty and brands with a
more visual offering remain at the forefront of Instagram’s success. In order
to capitalise on Instagram as a means of growing brand awareness all images
must be clear and aesthetically pleasing. The
British Journal of Photography argues that although a positive tool, Instagram’s
association with parent company Facebook puts all images at a risk of loss of
ownership once posted onto the platform due Facebook using content and data to
create revenue. Additionally Mike
Marko notes that Instagram does not support a call to action clickable
hyperlink in image captions which may cause consumers to deviate from gaining
more awareness of products.
However, social media platforms such as Instagram and
Facebook have long been used by brands as a means of showcasing and selling
products. Influencer
Marketing Hub notes that Instagram has combatted the lack of support for
hyperlinks by adding a shoppable post feature where consumers can simply press
the shopping bag icon to be shown the prices of the items in each image with a
call to action direct link to that exact product on the organisation’s website.
Social
commerce is well on it’s way to becoming a mainstream retail channel on bar with other mediums such as websites and offline stores.
Despite these challenges
Instagram remains a significant leader in building brand awareness. For example
when Absolut Vodka ran
an Instagram campaign to promote a limited edition spark bottle the company
achieved a 5 point
lift in brand awareness through short video clips highlighting their new
bottle. However a key point to note with this campaign was that Absolut is an
already well established brand with a significant social media following from
the offset so instant results of the same magnitude cannot be expected for a
business who is yet to have such a social media presence. In light of this, the
application of developing brand awareness shows to be a misleading term. For
Absolute this process consisted more of reminding consumers of the brand as
opposed to growing the actual awareness due to the already large customer base.
However, for SME’s building brand awareness would be more likely to produce
significant results. Given this information the term building brand awareness
should be used with caution as it is only likely to be effective for smaller
organisations.
A strong social media presence is
a key component in a successful digital marketing strategy. It is essential for
the platforms to become humanised to form meaningful
relationship moments by introducing consumers to the people who make up the
business and how customers are benefiting from using your products allowing
consumers to connect with the brand on a personal level. However, an air of
caution is advised when growing a brand presence on social media as consumers
may initially struggle to connect with the brand. A UK study from Trinity Mirror
Solutions found that more than half of adults do not trust a brand fully until
they see real proof that the brand is keeping it’s promise.
Social media analytics can be
used to leverage the reach of their posts, the click-through rate of the
consumer journey and which segments are interacting with content the most
frequently. This information is
particularly insightful as it allows for the content to be adapted in real time
to target another key segment if the reach is falling short.
What are the future trends for
social media moving into 2020:
The landscape of social media is constantly changing. Instagram
is one of the largest social media networks and major changes
implemented here can shape the social media landscape. One major change
going into 2020 is the possibility of Instagram removing the likes features on
posts. If Instagram removes
likes then brands won’t be able to measure the metrics of the direct impact of
their campaigns as easily as they do now. This might encourage some brands to
invest in Instagram Ads as they can easily track the
ROI for those.
Clare Bailey, MSc Digital Marketing Management student
TikTok has only been around for three years and, according to Sensortower, it has already amassed more than 1 BILLION downloads on the App Store and Google Play, making it the fastest growing social media platform to date.
If you’ve ever been on TikTok you will know that it is downright funny, a bit cringy, very samey but, despite all this, you can’t stop scrolling!
So what makes TikTok so addictive and why are businesses already tapping into its success? Let’s find out.
What is TikTok?
TikTok is a social video app that allows users to share 15 or 30 second lip-sync, comedy & talent videos
The app was launched in 2017 by the Chinese developer Bytedance for markets outside of China after Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) was launched the previous year. Although they use the same software, to comply with Chinese censorship restrictions, they use different networks.
If you think TikTok looks a lot like musical.ly then you are spot on. TikTok merged with musical.ly last year to generate a much larger video community gaining access to the American market which previously belonged to musical.ly.
Who is TikTok’s target audience?
According to the Globalwebindex, TikTok has a ‘younger’ audience, with 41% of users aged between 16 – 24. This is no surprise considering Bytedance specifically targeted the under-18s from the very beginning.
What are the main features of TikTok?
Video & Music
The most obvious use is watching or uploading video content, but what gives TikTok the edge is the sheer number of music downloads you can add to your video.
When using TikTok, think of Facebook and Instagram where you can apply filters gifs, likes, comments and shares. In addition, don’t forget hashtags – you can check out trending hashtags on the discover page.
Challenges & Duets
Apart from trending hashtags TikTok uses Challenges where you are encouraged to create videos around a popular songs and theme tagging a certain hashtag, like #shoechange. As you can search hashtags these can go viral fast!
Duets allow video to be placed beside another video that is watched simultaneously – this can be either your own content or placed along those of someone else.
Virtual coins
You can purchase in-app coins to reward your favourite creators on TikTok, which can be exchanged for digital gifts. According to Mobile Marketer, ‘tipping’ is not advertised by TikTok and their focus seems to be more on selling ads.
Algorithms
Although TikTok won’t reveal how it’s algorithms work, this is what they have said:
“TikTok will quickly adapt to your taste to offer the most relevant, interesting, fun, quirky, head-turning videos that you’ll never want to stop watching,”
What does that mean for business?
We all know that video SHOULD be at the forefront of your social media strategy and TikTok clearly ticks that box.
Also, as with any social media site, uploading ad content couldn’t be more easy and it is no different for Tik Tok ads
You only have to scroll up to see that TikTok is now showing ads, which they started rolling out in January 2019. According to Ubermetrics, they are still being tested and TikTok haven’t officially launched them yet.
Is it an effective Ad Platform?
DigiDay advised that TikTok is testing interest-based and pixel tracking to not only ensure it is an effective Ad platform, but also to prove it quickly. But, because Ads are in their infancy, it is hard to predict if they are going to be effective or not.
TikTok is an extremely creative platform where users can produce highly entertaining videos, duets and challenges. It is very different from Facebook and Instagram so businesses hoping to repackage content from these platforms are not likely to do very well. To truly stand out on TikTok you must create relevant material that fits to the idea of story telling.
But how effective can Ads be?
#eyeslipsface is the most viral campaign ever to run on TikTok attracting celebrities like Reece Witherspoon and Ellen to get on board unpaid!.
It amassed over 4 BILLION views and 3 MILLION user-generated videos, it spread organically onto only on TiKTok but also Instagram and Facebook. With media coverage in the likes of Vogue and Forbes.
So is TikTok right for your Business?
If you use TikTok in the right way, then you can introduce your business to a huge audience – but, is it right for you?
If your target market is Gen Alfa or Gen Z then it definitely ticks the box. Having said that, don’t write it off if it’s not. Like any other social media platform, it will inevitably roll out to an older generation. The difference with TikTok is that it is full of fun, silly video content and your marketing strategy needs to reflect this, so you need to decide if that is right for your business.
Also, TikTok is still in its infancy so should you wait to leverage the platform until it hits mainstream? Like with everything it all comes down to supply and demand and social media platforms are no different. While TikTok is relatively new it will be easier to attract organic reach for your business, but, as the platform gets more saturated it will inevitably go the same way as Facebook and Instagram. As an early adopter you need to weigh up if it’s worth the risk!
So if you want a platform that isn’t already saturated then jump on the TikTok band waggon and get ahead of your competition.
As a final point, Douyin has a ‘face and object search’ to find people and sell products and, according to Garyvee, these features are expected to roll out to TikTok soon.
Staffordshire Business School aspires to be a
leader in making a real impact on business and society through collaborative
research and innovation. Our team of academics have successfully delivered many
industry/business and government funded research projects and have extensive
experience of leading large team projects including local, UK, EU and
internationally funded projects.
Many of our team members combine rich industry and
practitioner experience with academic rigour in conducting world-leading
research and generating social and economic impacts in a wide range of areas
and fields. Our expertise includes but is not limited to the following research
streams and clusters:
Business and Management
Human Resources Management
Labour Market, Employment Relations and Migration
Organisational Change and Development
Public Sector Management
Leadership and Management Learning
Corporate Governance and Firm Performance
Corporate Social Responsibility
International Business and International Management
Place Marketing and Branding
Consumer Behaviour and Health Marketing
SME Innovation
Merger and Acquisition
Strategic Management and Leadership
Financial Management
Entrepreneurship and Innovation
LGBT Tourism and Family Tourism
Digital Transformation
and Innovation
Digital business strategy
Digital marketing and social media
Esports business and management
Digital technology diffusion in the financial sector
Digital entrepreneurship
Smart Cities/Communities/Urban and Regional Development
Smart cities strategy
Analysis and Evaluation of Public Policy on Urban Development (i.e. health; social care; urban education)
Place Leadership
Welfare reform
Community engagement and social inclusion
Environmental issues and sustainability
Postgraduate Research
Our academics conduct empirical research and are
actively publishing across a range of disciplines. As such they have a long history and a
successful track record of research supervision at both MPhil and Doctoral
levels. We are excited to welcome you to join our postgraduate research student
community.
For partnership and collaboration with us in industry-oriented
projects in both public and private sectors, please contact Professor Fang Zhao
– Associate Dean – Research and Enterprise at fang.zhao@staffs.ac.uk.
For enquiries about our MPhil or PhD program,
please contact:
Thursday February 6th 2020 Location – Ashley LT001 Dr Ijeoma Onwumere and Kathryn Taylor
As the ‘Connected University’ to meet the needs of our student, businesses and society, the focus of this year’s conference will be on “Global Business Challenges: Thriving in a hyper-connected Global World: The way forward”. We shall be exploring contemporary issues which businesses are facing globally and how these influence different areas of a business, such as, Digital Marketing, Business Administration and Strategy, Supply Chain in addition to the Health Service. The aim to support learners in building the advanced level skills of critical awareness and reflectivity necessary for a successful career in the 21st Century.
We are pleased to announce that this year’s keynote innovative, globally experienced and industrial speakers are: Tony Evans; Luke Bracegirdle; Balint Laszl; Dr Abdul Jabbar; Dr Radi Haloub; and Steve Lawley.
Tony Evans, Head of Financial Services, UK Amazon Web Services
Tony Evans, Head of Financial services, UK amazon web services. A globally experienced & innovative executive, working with customers to create data-driven digital strategies. He takes personal pride in developing customer-obsessed solutions, top talent and creating a world-class performance culture.
Tony has vast interest in growth leaders, Digital Disruption, Big Data, change Management and Business Strategy. Also, as former Head of Leonardo and Analytics,Tony was responsible for enabling customers to leverage SAP’s innovation portfolio, to drive business transformation and operational improvement. As the executive sponsor for SAP Machine Learning and Cloud customer adoption, Tony partnered with customer executive teams to promote SAP’s next generation computing platform. At SAP, Tony led SAP’s billion-dollar North American Database business and has managed the North American financial services business as the Chief Operating Officer.
Prior to SAP, Tony has a
successful track record in driving Business Process Reengineering and change
management for global organisations, including PepsiCo, Lucent Technologies and
IXNet. Tony has also held senior leadership positions across Oracle, BlackBerry
and SAP, where he has led the organisation of sales, technical and marketing
professionals, driving revenue growth through partnership with customers.
Tony is an alumnus of
Staffordshire University, where he graduated with BA (Hons) in Business Studies
and a Diploma in Marketing from CIM. Tony has an MBA in Change Management from
the University of Brighton and is a qualified Project Manager with the Project
Management Institute, an organisation he sat on the board of in NYC and
represented in the Global Project Management Forum. Tony also sits on the board
of a successful start-up, CrowdFlik where he partners with, and advises the CEO
around business strategy.
In addition, we have excellent guest speakers from our network of local businesses and Alumni who will be sharing some of their valuable experiences.
Luke Bracegirdle BSc (Hons)Director of Virtual Health SHED Ltd.
Luke develops mobile applications, virtual reality
and augmented reality digital resources for health. His work to develop a
learning system for health students at Keele University was recently “Highly
Commended” at the Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards 2018
for the Outstanding Digital Innovation of the Year category.
He is now working for the Digital Inclusion
Programme for North Staffordshire, funded by NHS England to create patient
information resources for voice activated assistants (e.g. Alexa), smartphones
and tablets.
As a Director for the Virtual Health SHED, he leads
on projects working to create innovative digital solutions for patient
information and clinical training.
Luke has
several Selected Publications:
Patents
Bracegirdle L and Chapman SR. Virtual Human Interaction System. AU.
Journal Articles
Humphreys M and Bracegirdle L. 2013. Using a Virtual Learning Environment within Simulation to enhance inter-professional team working skills. EDULEARN13 Abstracts, 4263-4268.
Richardson A, Bracegirdle L, McLachlan SIH, Chapman SR. 2013. Use of a Three-Dimensional Virtual Environment to Teach Drug-Receptor Interactions. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, vol. 77(1), Article 11.
Bracegirdle L and Chapman SR. 2010. Programmable Patients: Simulation of Consultation Skills in a Virtual Environment. Bio-Algorithms and Med-Systems, vol. 6(No. 11), 111-115.
Chapters
Pringle JK, Bracegirdle L, Potter JA. Educational forensic e-gaming as effective learning environments for Higher Education Students in Forensic Science Education and Training. Editors: Williams A, Cassella JP, Maskell PD. 1: 119-136. Wiley 30 Jun 2017 (Chapter 9) http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118689232.html
Humphreys M, Rosenorn-Lanng D, Bracegirdle L. 2013. Using a Virtual Learning Environment within Simulation to enhance inter-professional team working skills and patient safety. In Patient Safety and Quality Dimensions of Health Informatics. Michell V, Gulliver S, Rosenorn-Lanng D, Currie W, Kuljis J (Eds.). IGI Global, Pennsylvania.
Dr Abdul Jabbar: Director of Learning Development
Dr Abdul is the Director of Learning Development at Huddersfield University Business School. He is a guardian award winning academic with significant experience in software development, network design and e-commerce business models. Abdul is responsible for the Centre of Learning, Innovation and Development which has a focus on developing the student experience and providing innovative teaching and learning solutions. He is also the course leader for the cutting-edge course Business Data Analytics degree.
As part of his research Abdul has been successful in developing and running a fully functional Blockchain. Utilising his software skills and his expertise in business analytics.
Abdul has modelled and simulated different business processes within a Blockchain environment to ascertain the potential use case scenarios to support business growth. Current research has a focus on Blockchain and the use of real-time processing in automated decision making, with a view to anticipate the changing world of work.
Balint
Laszlo is the Founder and MD of project consultancy company B2Control. He is
currently a Senior Programme Control Consultant to National Grid’s Viking Link
project, responsible for the time and cost controls for the overall programme
of EPC work including cables, converters and civil’ s contracts.
After spending nearly, a decade in engineering the shift to project management has enabled Balint to work on major projects including London Power Tunnels in the UK, Lower Churchill Converters and Transition Compounds Project in Canada and Buk-Dangjin-Godeok project in South Korea. Working in the energy sector Balint passion towards sustainable energy production and consumption fired some debates with his peers and friends. Balint holds a BA(Hons) in Business Administration, Management and Operations and Engineering Degree in Telecommunications. https://www.b2control.net/
Dr Radi Haloub Senior Lecturer in Strategy
Radi is interested in multidisciplinary
research and teaching between the Business School, School of Applied
Science and School of Engineering by teaching Strategic Management for
non-Business Students and leading Business Research projects.
Radi’s research interests lie in the areas of general Management, more
specifically on Strategic Management, Minority Entrepreneurship, Forecasting
and Business Ethics. Prior to joining the academia, Radi worked in practice for
nine years in a strategic planning department at an international
pharmaceutical company that operates in MENA (Middle East and North Africa)
countries, in addition to his last post as a Unit Head at Procter and Gamble’s
distributor (IATCO) in Saudi Arabia.
Radi is currently looking at the impact of culture and religion in
social integration of minorities and its influence on forced entrepreneurship
status for refuges and economic migrants.
Radi has served the community in the UK by conducting consultancy
projects with Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT), Kirklees
Council, Calderdale Council, in addition to a few projects for Small Medium
Enterprises (SMEs) in Yorkshire.
BA/Leverhulme funded project: Radi was commissioned as Co-investigator and
working with Deema Refai and John Lever. This project titled: A
Better Future – Understanding Refugee Entrepreneurship (BFURE). The
team has been commissioned to carry out multi-site researches in West Yorkshire
region and develop refugee’s skills and integration into the society. The
project is supported by the Kirklees Council and some voluntary sector
organisations such as Huddersfield Sanctuary and Yorkshire Spirit CIC (Education).
Value: £6,060 (ongoing).
University Sandpit project: Radi was commissioned as the Principal
Investigator and working with Deema Refai, Toby Martin and John Lever. This
project titled: Sounding Out Refugees Stories in Jordan (SORJ). This
is an interdisciplinary project to explore the journeys of Syrian refugees in
Jordan and the challenges they face, focusing particularly on how these
journeys and challenges lead them to engage in entrepreneurship, whereby they
enhance their socio-economic cohesion. The project aimed to turn refugee
stories into two songs to be presented at two main events in Jordan (at a
university and a secondary school, respectively) to promote the positive image
of refugees through songs. Value: £14,300 (completed in 2019).
Santander Student Mobility Funds: Radi was commissioned to lead a group of four MSc students to present and contribute to Business Ethics workshop at the American University of Madaba in Jordan. The workshop and presentation were conducted at the School level and all students and academics were involved. Value: £5,000 (completed in 2016).
Steve Lawley: Director, ThriveNet
Steve
has worked most of his career with BT in a wide variety of roles in field
engineering, customer service and programme management, also heading up the UK
planning division when the Broadband network was initially being built. With 10
years’ experience at senior manager level in BT, he became Business Services
Director in the Openreach division, responsible for business connectivity
across the UK, before leaving BT in 2017 to become founder of his own
consultancy business.
Steve
is currently working with several business clients in the fibre and
connectivity arena where his expertise in network asset investment is key to
supporting current & future IP based technologies.
Steve holds a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Telecommunications Business from University College London, although has attended the Staffordshire campus previously before it became a Business School.
Venue Staffordshire University Business School Location Ashley LT001
Programme for the Day
09:00
Registration and Networking
09:30 Welcome and Introductions
Ijeoma Onwumere & Kat Taylor
09:40 – 10:20 Keynote Speaker 1
Tony Evans Global Business Challenges: Thriving in a hyper-connected Global World: The way forward
10:30
Break
10:40 – 11:20 Speaker 2
Abdul Jabbar Artificial Intelligence & Big Data in today’s Business
11:30 – 12:10 Speaker 3
Luke Bracegirdle Technology innovation, Global Cross Culture and Global business ethics’ in health care medicines and IT policies.
12:10
Lunch and Networking
13:00 – 13:10
Introduction to afternoon
13:10 – 13:50 Speaker 4
Balint Laszlo The effect and impact of green sustainability in business
13:50
Break
14:00 – 14:40 Speaker 5
Radi Haloub Global Cross culture and Global business ethics in Business
14:45 – 15:25 Speaker 6
Steve Lawley Business Challenges – Digital Disruption and More
Carol Southall, Senior Lecturer, Staffordshire Business School
As the ‘Connected University’,
Staffordshire University has a long history of working with international
partners to deliver undergraduate and postgraduate education worldwide. Such
links facilitate UK higher education (HE) provision, making HE available to
those for whom it would otherwise be unaffordable were they to have to travel
to the UK to study.
One such partnership is with
the successful British University Vietnam (BUV), located in the north of
Vietnam, in the country’s capital, Hanoi.
Now with a new, purpose-built campus in the Ecopark area of the City, BUV is expanding its course provision and consequently its student base, and now attracts students not only from Vietnam but also a small number from countries such as S Korea, Mongolia and Pakistan.
Since 2016, BUV have offered
a UK summer school to their students, with small numbers, accompanied by staff
members, travelling to the UK to spend a week at Staffordshire University and a
further week exploring England.
In 2019, Student Experience funding made it possible for the first time to offer such an opportunity to Staffordshire Business School’s (SBS) Tourism Management and Event Management final year students based at Staffordshire University’s Stoke-on-Trent campus. The fund, with an additional contribution from students, supported the field trip to Vietnam to engage with British University Vietnam’s inaugural tourism conference, 5-6 December 2019 – ‘Vietnam Tourism in the 21st Century’.
Keynote speeches focused on ‘Sustainability’
and ‘The Journey to Cultural Awareness’, delivered by SBS Senior Lecturer and
BUV Academic Link Tutor Carol Southall. The Vice Chairman of Vietnam National Administration
of Tourism (VNAT) Dr Ha Van Sieu also outlined the exponential growth in
Vietnamese tourism since the country opened its doors to tourism from the West
in 1988, from initial arrivals figures of under 93,000 to 16 million in 2019.
With his focus on ‘The Good,
the Bad and the Ugly’, or rather ‘The Good, Risks and Challenges’, Andrew Nisbet,
Cluster General Manager of The Hilton Hanoi Opera and Hilton Garden Inn Hanoi, discussed
the importance and development of the hospitality industry in Vietnam and its
challenges going forward. Such challenges included staff development and
training and the importance of education. Additional challenges identified by
other speakers included destination marketing and the comparatively low
marketing budget of US$2 million annually, compared to the US$80 million budget
invested in Thailand’s destination marketing, as well as airport capacity and
alternative (niche) tourism products and services.
Throughout their time in Hanoi, students were able to experience traditional northern Vietnamese food, including delicacies such as Egg Coffee, Bánh mì and Bun cha, the latter being immortalised in the tourist ‘must-eat’ list, after the then US President Barack Obama visited Hanoi and ate Bun Cha at a local restaurant in 2016.
The visit also incorporated key tourist sites such as the jaw-droppingly beautiful Trang An Landscape Complex, recognised by UNESCO and located within the Ninh Binh Province of North Vietnam, near the southern edges of the Red River Delta. Other excursions included a boat trip through Halong Bay, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as local attractions in Hanoi including Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Temple of Literature, Ho Lao prison (the infamous Hanoi Hilton), Walking street, Heritage House, Hoan Kiem Lake, Old Town and the City’s night market.
A highlight of the visit was an evening reception at the British Embassy Hanoi, where students and academics networked with industry to discuss their experiences of Vietnam and possible future opportunities. Visiting Discova, a Hanoi-based inbound Tour Operator, on their last day, students discovered more about tourism in Vietnam, and how a tour operator capitalises on international markets. Discussions were held around how the first Formula 1 in Hanoi in April 2020 will put Vietnam ‘on the World Stage’, evidencing to Event Management students the importance of global events in showcasing a destination. Students also heard more about the challenges faced by Vietnamese tourism organisations and operators, including those of sustainability, repeat visitation, cultural sensitivity and the competitive nature of the MICE market (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events) and the corresponding growth of destinations such as Hanoi, Danang and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) as MICE destinations.
As a connected University it
is imperative to consider how we connect, not just locally, regionally and
domestically, but also globally. Opportunities for cultural exchange, such as
field trips, virtual classes, Skype/Microsoft Teams discussions, staff and
student exchange, placements and collaborative academic research projects all enable
the interaction required to facilitate cultural understanding and integration,
leading to higher levels of cultural competence.
For students on an undergraduate degree there can be no doubt that such a trip is a life-changing experience. Becoming a global citizen and melting the cultural iceberg takes time. We need to understand the journey from cultural sensitivity to increased cultural awareness and cultural competence, and ultimately to global interconnectedness and understanding. But any journey starts with the first step, and for Staffordshire Business School students, their journey to cultural competence is well-underway.
Starting from Monday 20th January, Staffordshire Business School will be running a whole week of activities designed to enhance student employability and enterprise skills.
Activities include:
TestFest exams to become a certified Miscrosoft Office Specialist
A drop in session to discuss ideas and suggestions with the Business School Senior Management Team
Guest speakers from organisations such as the Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce and international universities
Take a look at the schedule below for timings and more information:
Augmented Reality (AR)
is predicted to become one of the biggest Digital Trends of the new decade.
Augmented reality is the result of using technology to superimpose information
(sounds, images and text) on the world we see. Forms of AR have been around
since the 1990s where Fighter Aircraft were able to show details on heads up
displays and later identifying objects in their field of views as targets. It’s
only in recent years where it’s been implemented into the publics almost every
day use. AR is predicted to be worth $34 billion by 2023. On the other hand, with adding the VR market expectations, the
sum of total market size of AR and VR will be more than 100 Billion USD in
total. The reason why we sum AR and VR is, soon the distinction between AR, VR
or Mixed Reality technologies will be diminish and we will start to evaluate
the techniques in XR (Extended Reality) universe.
With each new step forward into the digital revolution, films like ‘The Matrix’ are becoming more
like reality with every new step. Software and Hardware engineers are
continuing to refine their AR software’s to the point where it is already
blurring the line between real life and virtual life.
The first real AR software to take the general public by storm was Pokémon Go. Pokémon go was a mobile game that was
released in 2016, which was developed by Niantic as part of the Pokémon
franchise. The game uses the players GPS to locate, capture, battle and train
their virtual Pokémon which will appear on the user’s screen as if they were at
the players real-world location. The game follows the freemium business model in the sense that it is free to
play, however it charges for in-app purchases.
By the end of 2016 it
had more than 500 million downloads and was the most used and most profitable
apps that year. It was credited with popularizing AR technologies as well as
promoting physical activity. By early 2019 the game had over a billion
downloads, grossing over $3 Billion and over 147 million monthly users.
It was only a matter of time before AR moved into the Fashion as you’d
think that the two things go hand in hand together. Giving buyers the ability
to see what they’d look like in clothe without even having to try them on or
leave their house. ASOS launched its first AR feature called Virtual Catwalk
which will allow to have a new way of trying on the clothes that they wish to
buy. The online retailer is also trailing other AR features, including a tool which allows
customers to view products on different size models, so customers can get a
better sense of how something might fit their body shape.
Augmented Reality has also been introduced into the world of IKEA. IKEA released an App which is called IKEA
Place and lets users use AR to see what IKEA furniture would look like in their
homes before they go to one of their stores and buy it. To make the models work
within the app, each one had to be squeezed down to a file size less than 1.5
megabytes large. This meant a careful balancing act of reducing the size while
making sure the detail and texture of the model remained. Too little detail,
and the illusion of placing a real item in augmented reality would be
shattered.
Allowing buyers to be able to use Augmented Reality to see how clothes
would look on their own bodies digitally will eventually change how the general
public view the high street and here’s why. If you give someone the opportunity
to be able to go online and digitally be able to see what an entire outfit or
shopping haul would look like on their body without even leaving their house,
they’re just going to do it over and over again. It removes the need for the
high street, for bigger brands at least. The smaller independent brands are
never going to have the financial backing to be able to introduce AR so will no
longer be able to compete with their competitors.
AR is a relatively new technology that is only going to get more backing and funding to create more extraordinary software’s that will continue to push the barriers in terms of what is achievable with AR. They will be a lot more realism with what will be possible, it is exciting to see what is going to happen and how different developers will develop this software to help change the digital world forever. Will it become what it is predicted to be, or will it fall flat like many types of software before it? 2020 will definitely be the start of finding out.
Carol Southall, Senior Lecturer, Staffordshire Business School
As tourists we are apt to display a level of cultural arrogance that is often not representative of the person we are in our daily lives. We make assumptions about a destination, its people, lifestyles and all the overtly obvious elements of culture to which we expose ourselves during a trip, such as language, dress, religion and food.
In 1978 Edward Said controversially identified ‘the other’ in reference to those with whom we are unfamiliar, highlighting the false cultural representations informing western preconceptions and subsequent imperialist behaviour. Often used to refer to people of ‘oriental’ (Middle-eastern or Asian) origin, Said’s seminal work focused on western perceptions of the ‘other’, and difficulties in integrating western and eastern cultures (Said, 2003).
When we are exposed to the ‘other’ we may display a level of cultural superiority in an effort to assimilate our environment. We consider our own culture to be superior to that which we are experiencing, as our own cultural norms may be our only reference point on our cultural ‘compass’. We thus demonstrate an air of arrogance in assuming this. In struggling to understand the cultural context in which we find ourselves, we revert to the relative familiarity of what we know and understand, assuming it to be superior to that in which we find ourselves. We fail to fully understand other cultures and thus respond inappropriately to them and do not engage with them, often preferring to find a familiar enclave and settle there in the relative comfort of a familiar environment, McDonalds, a British pub, restaurants serving English breakfast (in the case of English tourists) etc.
In today’s globally connected world there is an increasing call for global citizens, and yet the question is, what is a global citizen, how do we connect, and in a time of political turmoil and upheaval, for the UK in particular, how important is this?
A global citizen is someone who is able to demonstrate an understanding of the world and their place in it. The interconnected nature of the world as a result of globalisation means that increasingly there is a need for those who are able to demonstrate a high level of cultural awareness.
Cultural awareness is a result of immersion, culture shock and introspection, and even good humour plays its part. Cultural immersion requires time, effort, knowledge and understanding, but it is the key to cultural awareness and the ensuing cultural competence required for greater cultural integration.
There are 3 key ingredients in cultural competence:
Self-knowledge
Experience, not just in the form of books and films, but immersion in culture. Try it, touch it, eat it, make mistakes, apologise, listen, try again
Positive change
In 1986 Weaver applied an iceberg analogy to previous cultural literature (Hall, 1976) and subsequently identified the cultural iceberg, consisting of 3 layers:
Surface culture – including the more obvious elements of culture such language, food and dress
Unspoken rules – hidden below the surface and taking more time for an outsider to understand, these include business and social etiquette and symbolism of colours
Unconscious rules – the most difficult and yet the most important characteristics to know and understand. These are the things that people adhere to and believe in without conscious thought, including verbal and non-verbal communication, sense of time, physical distance and emotional responses.
So what can we do to become a global citizen? To melt the cultural iceberg and uncover and understand the unspoken and unconscious elements of culture that lead from cultural sensitivity to increased cultural awareness and cultural competence, and ultimately facilitate global interconnectedness and understanding? It is suggested that the only way to learn the internal culture of others is to actively participate in their culture. This takes time, commitment and an open mind.
We cannot judge a new culture based only on what we see when we first enter it. We must take time to get to know individuals from that culture and interact with them. Only through this can we uncover the values and beliefs that underlie the behaviour of that society and hope to make positive steps towards cultural understanding and integration. Consideration of all as equals is fundamental to progressing cultural awareness, argues Vaudrin-Charette (2019).
Only through cultural competence on the part of all groups in society can there be greater acceptance between and within groups of people, and, who knows, the world may just become a better place.
References
Said, E. (2003) Orientalism. London: Penguin Books.
Vaudrin-Charette (2019) Melting the Cultural Iceberg in Indigenizing Higher Education: Shifts to Accountability in Times of Reconciliation. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 157, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com)
Weaver, G.R. in Paige, R.M. (1986) Cross-cultural orientation: new conceptualizations and applications. University Press of America.
For information on studying Tourism and Events at Staffordshire University click here
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