Marketing 16th Edition by William Pride,Ferrell

تمرين 19

That 25-cent postcard in the gift shop may soon become a thing of the past. RogueSheep's postage application is giving the traditional postcard a run for its money, as it allows users to send a digital postcard to their family members quickly and efficiently. RogueSheep is a software development and consulting company based in Seattle. Co-founders Christopher Panish,Danid Guenther, Man Joss, and Jeff Argast founded RogueSheep as an Adobe Development shop. The company specializes in graphics and publishing software while acting as a consultant to clients with their software development projects.
By far the companys most newsworthy product is its mobik app "Postage," iPhone's first postcard application. The idea for Postage came from a busi ness conference when Parrish's business partner wanted to send a postcard lock to his wife. The founders of RogueSheep thought this would make a prat iPhone app,and development of this app began.
For $4.99, 'Phone users can purchase the app, choose from more than 60 postcard designs, customize the design by inserting their own photos, and send the postcard to their friends or relatives. What takes a few days by regular mail can now take only seconds. Connectivity based on digital communication keeps people connected in an instant. Social networking sites provide a way that consumers can connect and express their feelings, emotions, and opinions. In the case of the RogueSheep Postage app, it provides better and more personalized connections than a traditional postcard.
RogueSheep has become a major success in the soft-ware design world, winning Apple's 2009 Design Award and Maavorld's 2009 Mac Gems Award for best e-mail app. Much of its success likely comes from the great care that RogueSheep puts into its Postage designs. Each postcard in the app is created by the application designer,and designs are centinually added to give customers a range of options to choose from. Additionally, RogueSheep has broken into the social networking world by creating ways that users can share their customized postcards with friends and folk)wers on Facebook and Twiner. Now that social networking is more popular for personal communication than email, RogueSheep's app is perfect for social networks.
To create awareness of the product, RogueSheep uses a combination of digital and traditional media. By using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, RogueSheep encourages users to become fans or followers and share information about RogueSheep with others. RogueSheep also uses web advertising and traditional magazines like Marworld as promotional tools. Finally, RogueSheep encourages trials of its Postage app by giving out promotional codes through Twitter to enable free trials of its product. RogueSheep's Postage app could also be uti-lized for businesses that send postcards TO remind custom-ers about their products or special events. This applica-tion could potentially be customized to be a less expensive, more impactful business-to-the-consumer promotional postcard.
As more and more people become familiar with iPhonc. asses, RogueSheep must constantly adapt its products to anticipate and meet customer needs. In addition to its new update to allow for Facebook sharing, RogueSheep is also offering new product apps such as SnoGlobe-which allows users to turn their iPhone into a snow globe with falling flakes that move as the iPhone moves-and Holiday - Postage for seasonal postcards. By creating a new, efficient way to meet a consumer need, Rogue Sheep's Postage app may supplant printed materials to become the future of postcards. The business applications of sending RogueSheep postcards are unlimited. It can be just another form of digital marketing. RogueSheep's postage application, like all digital marketing activities, should be integrated into a marketing strategy that relates to the target market's ability and interest in digital communication."

1. How do you think businesses could effectively use RogueSheep postcards in their communications program?
2.Is it possible for RogueSheep to advance its digital post-cards to those who do nor have access to iPhone apps?
3. What are the advantages of the RogueSheep digital postcard over traditional postcards?