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Perspectives_On_Marketing_----_Part_Two_The_Foundations.pdf

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The Web has become a critical part of the marketing effort for every brand that exists in America today, and should be given more than just passing consideration for every product or service that goes to market. Interactive ele- ments must be called out in all marketing plans, and they must play a prominent role in building awareness and keeping brands contemporary.

The Web works on a variety of levels to do everything from engaging prospec- tive buyers, persuading them to purchase your products, or simply entertaining everyday consumers through your messages and brand-centric activities. The Web should be utilized on two primary levels:

The awareness-driving level: i.e., advertising via Web banners, streaming video components, engaging in viral efforts, leveraging social media, seed- ing a video on YouTube, etc.

The information-gathering level: i.e., corporate Web sites, online prod- uct reviews, corporate information/history, media updates, leadership con- tact details, etc.

In the past decade, this second level has become critical to corporate success as most consumers now go to the Web to gather information before making any meaningful (and even not-so-meaningful) purchases. Whether leasing a car, buying a home, obtaining medical insurance, shelling out $8 for a movie ticket, or procuring a new book, consumers go to the Web to gather information before they buy. Indeed, the average consumer spends countless hours sifting through data points and online customer (and expert) reviews before making a major purchase. For example, if a consumer is in the market for a new flat-screen TV, that individual will no longer walk into his or her local electronics store and ask the manager of the TV department, “What do you think?” Instead, that consumer will gather data on the Internet. He or she will check out multiple reviews

TOPIC #39

HOW IMPORTANT IS THE WEB TO ANY MARKETING EFFORT?

MICHAEL HAND

THE CLIENT PERSPECTIVE

Miletsky, J. I., & Hand, M. (2009). Perspectives™ on marketing. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_blank' style='cursor: pointer;'>http://ebookcentral.proquest.com</a> Created from snhu-ebooks on 2021-08-16 23:18:24.

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(at the time of this writing, a basic Google search on the phrase “flat screen TV reviews” yielded more than 540,000 hits), visit multiple manufacturer Web sites, and maybe even e-mail friends and family to ask for their opinions. After this stage, the person might walk into a store to buy a TV—but could just as eas- ily make the purchase online. Simply put: All roads will drive consumers to the Internet at some point along the journey.

I want to acknowledge the Internet’s evolving role because it illustrates the importance of keeping Internet marketing activities in the same conversation as traditional TV and print advertising. It also makes it very clear that you no longer can control 100 percent of your company’s or brand’s message and image in the marketplace. Third parties now greatly influence people’s buying deci- sions. The Web is never turned off. It’s a 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week, 365- days-a-year information source that can give any time-pressured individual access to products and services (as well as customer feedback on these products and services) worldwide with a simple click of the mouse. Where other media forums are a one-way dialogue, the Web is equally strong in getting messages out as it is in taking them in. The Web’s ability to update in real time as com- ments are shared is also something no other form of media in the marketing mix can deliver.

According to a report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a leading research organization, more than 80 percent of all Internet users use the Web to research products and services before they make an offline purchase. This staggering statistic highlights exactly how important the Web has become to marketers.

But rather than making my entire point by quoting numbers (even though those numbers alone could easily make the case for the Web’s importance), I’d rather use this section to deconstruct the Web a bit and examine what makes it differ- ent and why it’s become such a huge deal. Part of it is that the Web is a hybrid entity, in that it’s both an advertising medium and the object being advertised. Other factors include how messages are delivered, the potential for increased markets, particular reinforcement of the brand, and heightened consumer inter- action. Let’s take a look at each of these individually.

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JASON MILETSKY

THE AGENCY PERSPECTIVE

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THE WEB AND ITS HYBRID STATUS Advertising, for example, is used to promote a product or service or increase awareness of a brand. Its a single-effect communication requiring the audience to take action on their own. A reader of a print ad, for example, can’t make a purchase directly from that print ad. He or she must take some sort of action such as making a phone call or visiting a store in order to make a purchase. The ad promotes the brand, and the company or the store sells the product.

The Web, however, falls somewhere between the promotion and sales processes. A Web site can act in exactly the same way as an ad in a magazine: by promot- ing the brand and pushing consumers toward a product. In this sense, both the print ad and the Web site exist for the purpose of driving consumers to make a purchase (take action). They each work to advertise a brand. The Web is differ- ent from other marketing tools, though, in that visiting a Web site is often the very action that other marketing tools attempt to persuade consumers to take. Rather than making the case to consumers to visit a store and purchase a prod- uct, a print ad may instead make the case to consumers to visit the brand’s Web site and gather more information or make a purchase from there. In this sense, the Web is not only a means of advertising, it is also the thing being advertised. So in this scenario, one marketing tool—i.e., a print ad—is, in a way, marketing another marketing tool—i.e., the Web.

The Web offers infinite space to provide information, promote the brand per- sonality, and offer e-commerce capabilities, while social-media tools enable the brand to interact with its market, delivering a far richer experience than a 30- second commercial or one-page print ad ever could.

INDIVIDUAL MESSAGE DELIVERY Traditional mass marketing tools and branding efforts address the audience as a single entity, regardless of how many people that audience might include. This approach offers no way to speak to individual members of a target market. Instead, it sends messages to large demographics, which are targeted based pri- marily on assumptions made about the shows being watched, the magazine being read, or what have you. For example, the investment firm Charles Schwab can reasonably assume that they are more likely to reach people inter- ested in their services by running ads during The Suze Orman Show on CNBC than by advertising on Rock of Love on VH1. While individual shows can pro- vide a more narrow audience demographic, the message is still sent to the audi- ence as a whole; the commercial has no way of reaching out to a particular member of the audience and saying, “Hi, John. We noticed you’ve been looking around for a high-yield IRA. You might be interested in one we offer….”

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In contrast, thanks to social-media tools, the Web can speak to each member of a given audience on an individual basis through personalization. Sites like Amazon.com have perfected the art of promotion based on intuitive, one-to-one marketing. When you first get there, the site features items that it’s trying to push most aggressively because at this point it doesn’t know who you are or what you are interested in. After you’ve tooled around on the site a bit, however, this changes. Do a few searches and then check out Amazon’s home page the next time you visit—the featured products will now reflect what the site thinks you’ll be interested in based on your previous search and/or purchasing history. Face it, no retail outlet in any industry can suddenly change its window display based on my previous shopping habits in their store!

The ability to market to individuals based on previous buying behavior increases the potential for sales by making brands accessible to the people most likely to buy them. From a brand perspective, this creates significant opportunities for increased revenue and brand recognition from key markets.

INCREASED MARKETS Traditional marketing can be expensive. One full-page print ad can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred thousand dollars, depending on the publication. Television spots can be even more pricey. Thirty seconds of air time can range from a few hundred dollars (for example, to air in a single county on a relatively unpopular cable show) to nearly three million dollars (for exam- ple, to air during the Super Bowl). This can add up quickly, limiting reach and exposure.

Technically, the Web’s exposure is limitless and easily accessible to anyone, regardless of demographic or geographic boundaries. This doesn’t mean every- one will see your site, just that everyone can see it. This creates opportunities for marketers to increase the reach of their brands by concentrating efforts on driving people to their sites through traditional marketing, word-of-mouth, and links shared between sites. By opening themselves up to new audiences, brands can generate increased exposure and sales.

REINFORCEMENT OF THE BRAND MESSAGE Because the Web is so dynamic, marketers can use it to reinforce their brand image and promise without the consumer even making a purchase. Pampers.com, for example, has developed their Web site specifically to enhance their promise of being a brand that cares about babies and toddlers. For decades, Pampers has earned the trust of parents all over the world by consistently marketing safe, reliable, and high-quality products specifically for babies—an area in which gaining trust can be particularly difficult. To reinforce this trust in their products, Pampers uses its site as a marketing tool by providing a true informational

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resource for parents, presenting helpful insights, expert advice, and information for parents about child development, growth, activities, and more. Much of this information has little or nothing to do with the products they sell.

Why would Pampers bother? After all, the company is in business to sell a prod- uct, not to provide advice. The reason is the difference between the product (what Pampers sells) and the brand (what Pampers promises). The site shows that although Pampers manufactures diapers, they in fact care about kids before car- ing about profit. This is what builds trust, which in turn builds loyalty—which, eventually, translates to increased sales.

When translating their brand onto the Web, marketers should ask themselves (or, better yet, their customers) what information they can provide beyond stan- dard product information that can improve the lives of their customers. The Web offers brands increased opportunities to provide value-added services over and above their product offerings and engage their market in far more personal ways, thereby increasing trust and reinforcing their brand.

HEIGHTENED CONSUMER INTERACTION In addition to enable brands to market on a one-to-one basis, the Web also pro- vides the ability to create a community of customers. Indeed, through blogs, Wikis, social networking, and other tools, brands can interact with consumers more closely than ever before. The Web lets brands learn from customers. With the Web, brands can gather opinions, run more effective marketing and promo- tional campaigns, and give consumers the opportunity to interact with each other. These efforts help to build trust and strengthen the emotional connection between brand and consumer, providing increased opportunities for the brand to more closely connect itself to its market.

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