Facebook is testing a retail-friendly “Want” button

Facebook is testing a retail-friendly “Want” button accompaniment to the “Like” button, which could help Facebook increase revenue through sales commissions and ads. Facebook is working with seven retail partners in the beta test, including Pottery Barn, Wayfair, Victoria's Secret, Michael Kors, Neiman Marcus, Smith Optics, and Fab.com. Facebook users in certain areas have been able to click “Want” and “Collect” buttons upon products from the retailers.

Items that users “Want” will be saved in a collection or wish list. Also the wanted item will appear on the users’ timeline. In turn, Facebook friends will be able to look at a users' wants/collections/wish list and treat them.

During the test phase, Facebook will not get a commission for wish list purchases by Facebook friends. However, it is likely the social network will take a cut when the feature is rolled out properly.

Although Facebook won't get a cut of sales, Robert W. Barid analyst Colin Sebastian told Reuters that the "Want" button provides other opportunities for monetisation. "In addition to potentially collecting a transaction fee for referring users to an e-commerce site, Sebastian said that retailers might also pay Facebook to promote products featured on users' wish lists, similar to the way the Facebook's current ads function."

The “Collections” wish list feature will be gradually rolled out to all US users when the wish list feature is fully integrated into Facebook.

The Collections feature won't be a social plug-in or available outside of the Facebook site for now, the company said. It will be viewable by Facebook users on their News Feeds.

There was some talk at the time of the addition of a Want button for products, but more speculation centred on different variations of how a user might be able to signify that they'd consumed media.

Mengxue Zheng - Marketing Advisor

007 Loses his 50 year tradition

In recent times product placement has become more and more popular being used in anything with air time on our screens from day time TV, documentaries and movies. Product placement is where branded goods or services are placed in a context of being advertised in such things as movies, music videos, the story line of television shows, or news programs. Famous movies and TV shows that are popular for product placement are James Bond, Sex and the City, The Hangover, ET, The Office, Mad Men, Suits and Friends to name a few.

With the release of the 50 year anniversary bond movie “Skyfalls” this month product placement is set to go crazy. When you think of product placement through all the James Bond movies we automatically think of brands such as Dom Perignon, Rolex, Aston Martin and Walther PPK are all naturally linked to James Bond. In recent times they have changed Bonds habits and have changed the regular product placement to new brands which are Heineken, Range Rover and Coke Zero. James Bond has always drunk Vodka Martinis 'shaken, not stirred' since the line first appeared in Ian Fleming's novel Diamonds are Forever in 1956.

But Bond has hit hard times like the rest of the world and has been forced to sell himself to the highest bidders as film-makers MGM have tackled financial difficulties. It is believed that the Bond deal to swap Vodka Martinis for Heineken was worth a massive €35 million. They claim the movie could not have been made without the deal.

Although in my opinion, I do not know if this is the right move for the enterprise especially as it is an iconic 50 year anniversary release. But on the other hand will viewers even notice the difference?

Do you think €35 million was worth MGM changing 007 James Bonds trademark drink for a 50 year symbolic movie or do you think the change is a good for the move?

Nada Mousa- Marketing Advisor J