How to sell soap

E-marketing is for companies a modern way to promote their brands. Mostly trendy brands use these new electronic media to reach their target groups. But what if you simply try to sell... soap?

Watch the video below to learn that even simply staple goods can be marketed via internet.

CU Online! Where?!

When opening the CU Online page of the CU portal we were wondering the information overload. Our attention was not only drawn to a website error, but also to an image, several links, different menus, not to mention all the different fonts used on the page. This does not look user friendly at all. Some links on this page are hyperlinks to external web pages, where by a whole new page opens in a new window.

What follows next are some of our recommendations which will turn the design around to be more user friendly and efficient in usage. At the end, students have to feel comfortable and like to use CU Online in favour of their courses.

First we will talk about the information architecture. Obviously, there are a lot of things Coventry University wants the students to look at. They chose not to stick all the information on one page which is an excellent choice. It would take too long to load and students would not find what they need easily.(Nielsen, 2009) That is why the hierarchy of the offered information should be perfectly clear. This means that the general information concerning all students should be find very easy, without much effort. Searching for more specific info about a certain subject or course must be present on sub pages. A good navigation structure will ease this searching process. The CU Online page already tried to split up information and provided ways for students to find their way through all the offered info. But although they split it up, it still looks like a chaos. (Williams R., 2005)


Navigation on this page is also a crucial working point. Different types of navigation are currently used. We have left navigation which is very useful as we read from left to right in the UK. There’s also two top navigations. The advantage is this leaves more room for content and other relevant information in the centre of the page. Even on the right we find navigation possibilities under “Links”. These are all quick links to general information. But if we combine all these different navigation options, it starts to look too complex. Students often do not have the patience or time to discover and learn all the different navigation. Complicated and difficult to use navigation often makes users feel uneasy. Instead, it should be instinctive, easy to use and instantly clickable. (Mardiros Internet Marketing, 2009)

The titles of navigation are kept short and descriptive. This makes it easy to understand where every link leads to. The primary navigation, on the left hand side, should be no more than seven links. It should only include the most important links. The rest should be mentioned in the secondary navigation. The primary navigation should also stand out by using graphics and a different link style. On every page there should only be a fair number of links, less then 10. The best approach is to group similar links in categories. (Hunt, 2009) This means when clicking on a link in the main navigation, a sub menu with other related links appear. Because of this, the searched subject or information can be find much more easily and it is less time consuming . A used link should also be coloured differently, so it is clear the link is already used. The colour should stay in line and match with the web page design. In short, website navigation has to be kept simple and clean. (Bland V., 2009)


A good tip when redesigning the portal page of CU Online, let it be tested and pre-used by some students. Listen to their feedback and if possible correct important minors. Finally, they have to use CU Online frequently and the tool is especially developed for them to obtain course information much easier. They are the target, feedback from them can never do any harm. That is why it would be a good idea to give students an online possibility to suggest improvements or argue the user friendliness or usage efficiency of CU Online. In longer term, when redesigning the page, all these remarks could be kept in mind. (Bland V., 2009)


Knowing the CU Online page is used by all Coventry University students, why not offering them the possibility to gather in a online social community? Actually, the name says it all. CU Online, this application has to make sure it is well presented online. For example, all students who join the Coventry University network, or other Coventry University networks on Facebook, have the unique opportunity to join the CU Online group and/or fan page. Or, why only limit to those networks? Let’s make it available for all Facebook users! People and students who feel connected with CU Online will soon join this online group. By this support information and updates can be announced, there is the possibility to start discussions on several CU Online related topics, participants have the chance to give feedback and talk about their experiences with each others and with people responsible for this learning platform or users can pose questions. After developing this tool, it should be announced on the CU Online page so students are aware of this community tool. At the end, it will create a younger and a more involved image of CU Online, which hopefully results in a more pleasant use of the CU Online page, if major improvements are made!



References
Bland V. (2009) 'Website development: avoiding the traps.' NZB 23, 52-55

Hunt B. (n. d.) Web Design from scratch [online] available from [5 April 2009]

Nielsen J. (n. d.) Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design [online] available from [5 April 2009]

Unknown (n. d.) Mardiros Internet Marketing [online] available from [5 April 2009]

Williams R. (n. d.) Good Design Features [online] available from [25 February 2005]

Establishing Trust and Trustworthiness online

Trust is a key factor to achieve long-term relationships with customers. In order to achieve this we must first maximize consumer satisfaction with all possible interactions through the website. Satisfaction is generated if the expectations about the relationship are met. Therefore we must identify the needs in the online context to order what they want in a personal and efficient way. Secondly, we must manage our corporate image. To do so, we must promote the website by focusing on the offered advantages and services. If possible, we should create links to consumer organizations and other official websites to create an image of concern with consumers’ well-being. Social marketing might also be very useful to improve levels of reputation. An improvement of the satisfaction level and reputation will increase levels of trust and consumer commitment. An important note is that consumers do not trust a website if it is not trustworthy. To be trustworthy a website should be honest, benevolent and competent. Every online presence conducted by your company should be characterized by these 3 elements. (Casalo et al., 2007)

Now, let’s take a look at the official web shop page of Everton FC. How do they create a trustworthy image so people are willing to buy some merchandising through the online shop? First of all the design of the website makes it very easy to navigate between all the different pages. The tabs on top of the web shop’s homepage give clear information about all the available pages and topics. On the left, other information possibilities make it easy to find your way.

A first quick look of the Everton’s web shop homepage gives already a trustworthy feeling, provoked by the different visible features. First of all, services and assistance is provided by the large FAQ’s page, which is divided in different paragraphs by subject. At the beginning of this page, it is also made clear that further assistance will be given when visitors can’t find the right information on the website.

Because of the commercial character of the web shop, it is a must to mention delivery and return information. Buying through an online shop is possible from all over the world so different delivery options must be available. By informing visitors about these procedures, they know what they can expect.

When buying via the Everton’s official web shop, all orders are treated by JJB Sport, a large UK sport retailer. In the Terms & Condition section, JJB Sport and the owners of the Everton football website, clarify their responsibilities when using their web shop. Contact information is another strong feature to improve the trustworthiness of the web shop. On this page they make a clear distinction about all the different contact services and departments.

Online trust is the key differentiator that determines the success or failure of companies conducting business on the Internet. It is linked to the perception of the company’s respect for customer’s privacy. Trusted websites provide consumers a secure and private online shopping experience. These businesses come up with solutions concerning leakage, unauthorized collection and misuse of private information and promote deep customer loyalty. An individual’s trust is influenced by the perceived trustworthiness, which deals with integrity, benevolence and the ability of the trustee. A stronger privacy policy leads to higher perceived trustworthiness. Higher trustworthiness leads to greater trust. (Lauer and Deng, 2007)

To earn a consumer’s trust a website has to state explicit that customer data is treated in a fair and responsible manner. Often companies use therefore data handling practices privacy policies. It is important that the user perceives this commitment as credible. To achieve this, a lot of companies add privacy seals to their privacy policies or make their website P3P-compliant. Even more important for a company to gain trust is what it does with the data and also what it does not do. Therefore the content, language and presentation should be reader friendly. (Pollach, 2007)

Privacy Policy is the most important element on a website to increase your trustworthiness. Consumers are reluctant towards handing their personal and financial information. Therefore they want the certainty that their information is only used for their online purchase. Everton FC made the information easy accessible and clearly understandable. The usage of paragraphs is key here. If you want to purchase through the website, you have to register and give some personal information. By this, the web shop creates your personal shopping experience and guarantees you privacy of your information.

This level of online trust can be increased by 2 factors. The first factor is the use of service level agreements that cover all legal and non-legal requirements of online trading. The second factor concerns the establishment of support centres that act as intermediaries in case of disputes and guarantors of trustworthiness. (Ignatiadis et al. 2006)

There are different types of interaction which can provide different levels of trust. The highest level of trust is reached with face-to-face interaction but this is impossible through a website.
(Angriawan and Thakur, 2008)

There are still some other different types of trust which depend on the personal situation with the interaction (Uden and Naaranoja, 2007):

1. Knowledge-based trust: In this case the individuals trust each other because they know each other. They are able to predict each other’s behaviour and have shared experiences. The trustor uses information about how the trustee has carried out previous tasks to predict his future action.

This level of trust is applicable when the visitor already did some purchases through the web shop, or is influenced by positive word of mouth.

2. Transferred trust: This kind of trust occurs when the trustor knows and trusts the person or institution that recommends the trustee.

When other websites related to the Everton’s football club, refer to the Everton’s web shop

3. Psychological or behavioural trust: This is based on the pre-disposition towards having confidence that others will carry through on their obligations.

The stated privacy policy and other informational elements can create a higher level of trust because visitors are more likely to be convinced of the web shop’s reliability.

4. Technological trust: The belief that technologies will perform reliably and will not be used for negative purposes.

This is also covered in the privacy policy that when giving personal information, this will be kept secret and will only be used for the purchase.

5. Organizational trust: The belief that the organisation involved will carry through on its obligations.

When purchasing a product by the official web shop of Everton, the customer believes that he bought an original item and that it will be delivered like mentioned in the terms of condition.

References:

Arifin Angriawan and Ramendra Thakur (2008) 'A Parsimonious Model of the Antecedents and Consequence of Online Trust: An Uncertainty Perspective .' Journal of Internet Commerce 7, (1) 74-96

Lauer, Thomas and Deng Xiaodong (2007) 'Building online trust through privacy practices .' International Journal of Information Security 6, (5) 323-331

Lee, Matthew K. O.; Turban, Efraim. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Fall2001, Vol. 6 Issue 1, p75, 17p

Ignatiadis, Ioannis; Svirskas, Adomas; Roberts, Bob and Tarabanis, Konstantinos (2006) 'Promoting trust in B2B virtual organisations through business and technological infrastructures .' International Journal of Networking & Virtual Organisations 3, (4) 395-411

Irene Pollach (2007) 'What's wrong with online privacy policies?.' Communications of the ACM 50, (9) 103-110

Luis V. Casalo, Carlos Flavián and Miguel Guinalíu (2007) 'The Influence of Satisfaction, Perceived Reputation and Trust on a Consumer's Commitment to a Website.' Journal of Marketing Communications 13, (1) 1-17

Dr. Lorna Uden and Dr. Marja Naaranoja (2007) 'The development of online trust among construction teams in Finland.' ITcon 12, 305-323

Kimery, Kathryn M.; McCord, Mary. Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, Oct-Dec2006, Vol. 4 Issue 4, p52-74, 23p

Time for effective Opt-in e-marketing has come!

E-mail is a very popular marketing communications support. Because of the low costs per contact and direct measurable results, this medium is nowadays more frequently used. But do consumers want to receive all those e-mails? As analysed and concluded in Merkle’s new rapport ‘View from the inbox’, it is clear that their behaviour and attitude towards this e-support keeps changing.

These days, mailboxes are becoming overloaded with marketing messages. If companies want to be effective, they should choose for a permission based or ‘opt-in’ approach, where receivers subscribe themselves on e-mail messages.

After a gain in 2007, time spend on permissive mails stabilised in 2008. 59% of all e-mail users spends at least 20 minutes on permission e-mails each week, and even over one-quarter more than an hour. This makes that opt-in e-mails take a quarter of all time spend on e-mails, after communicating with friends and family.

This research also reported an inverse relationship between the most valued e-mail types and the amount of e-mails which consumers receive. The most interesting e-mail subjects are transaction related confirmations and account summaries. The quantity in which they are received is low, in contrary to the amount of less interesting permission e-mails like news alerts and offers.


The biggest reasons to choose opt-out of e-mail messages is the lack of relevance (cited by 75%) and too frequent sending (73%). These problems are mostly associated with promotional e-mails because of being too intrusive. 55% of these e-mails are even deleted without opening!

Although there was just a small increase of respondents checking their e-mails on mobile phones (11%), the percentage of checking permissive e-mails mobile increased with 5% compared to 2007.

With these research conclusions, companies have to stay alert when using opt-in e-mails. Customers are becoming more aware of this marketing technique. Slightly over half of the respondents are less willing to subscribed themselves for e-mail communications now then a few years ago. But like the report shows, when using opt-in messages well, this can be a great communications and marketing support.


References

6Minutes (n. d.) 'Opt-in' best choice for e-mail marketing [online] available from [18 March 2009]

Loechner J. (n. d.) Opt-In Email next best after family and friends [online] available from [13 March 2009]

The power of online communities

Browser based communities

Because they are enlarging, online social communities are very attractive for advertising expenditure. In 2007, 920 billion dollar was spend on ad expenditure for use in social networks in the United States. In 2008 this number rose to 1,6 billion dollars. Worldwide the ad expenditure on social networks grew to 2,1 billion dollar between 2007 and 2008.

The problem with mass social networks like Facebook is that they are limited in their ability to target customers with relevant ads from a brand advertiser. Most of the time advertisers only know the age and the interest, which they found out based on the groups in which the consumer is enrolled. (Medford, 2007)

LinkedIn might be better than Facebook and other mass social networks for advertisers. The consumer is motivated to update his profile because it concerns his professional life.

The members are older and wealthier than Facebook and MySpace users. This offers opportunities for B-to-B and premium good advertisers because they know the customer’s profession, the industry he works in, level of education and geography.

A Small World, http://www.asmallworld.net/, is another example of a social network. The website has 100 percent revenue of luxury brand ads like for example Louis Vuitton, Dior and Mercedes Benz. The website works with a focus group of consumers. These people are asked what brand they remember from the website on a regular basis. Apparently they have 85 percent brand recognition on the website. This is because the ads on the website are relevant to the audience. This is what’s so important for marketers. There’s also a high level of engagement which mass social networks can’t achieve. (Baker, 2008)

Marketers have several opportunities to target their target group. A simple way to reach consumers is by using banners. These are classic methods but seem to have lost their efficiency. A lot of companies have made a group of their own now on websites like Facebook. Other users can join this group. But what every marketer wants to achieve is that consumers build groups about the brand on their own, which happened with Starbucks.

Online gaming communities

Advertising in games or advergaming was first introduced by SEGA somewhat 20 years ago. According to Massive, a Microsoft subsidiary specialised in placing ads into video games, advertising within video games will approach a 1.4£ billion business by the end of the decade.
This would be a rough 3% of all media spent.

This growth is driven by the online application of in-game advertising. An increasing percentage of the 15-35 year olds are playing games in an online community. Already 75% of people who have internet access spend more than an hour per month playing online games (Park Associates, 2006).

Especially massively-multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPG) are booming business. MMORPG reach thousands of people and generate cash by the monthly membership contribution fees, virtual goods and advertising. The revenues of US online gaming such as MMORPG’s services will be touching $3.5 billion in 2009. (Park Associates, 2005)

By registering and agreeing to the terms of use, the company behind the game receives a lot of useful information. Gender, age, location, leisure activities, who your friends are, what times your playing … .These databases make it very easy for marketers to reach different segments and target specific groups. A high ROI is guaranteed, measuring internet traffic nowadays is also no problem.

The question remains how we reach these gamers effectively? Most members of these online game communities know the internet as if it was their own backyard and will not click easily on a lame banner ad. Gamers are also likely to be more engaged with their primary task (playing the game) and therefore have less attention capacity for the surrounding secondary information compared with their level of attention when they are engaging in usual online activity (Adam Acar, 2009).

E-xpErtz believe a mix of advertising tools could do the trick. Direct mailing to clearly limited target groups, product placement in the games, sponsoring certain features of the game, virtual billboards, account extra point or lives to people who include your brand name on the clothing of their virtual alter ego,…

Online communities whether they are browser based or originate from online games are not only the next best thing; they will probably dominate the near future on the internet. People are spending more and more hours within these communities. You don't want to limp behind with your brand...

References:

Baker, Claudine (2008) 'Close Friends .' New Media Age Supplement, 12-13

Medford, Cassimir (2008) 'MySpace Opens Ad Window to marketers.' Red Herring Unknown , 4-4

Adam Acar (2007) 'Testing the Effects of Incidental Advertising Exposure in Online Gaming Environments.' Journal of interactive advertising 8,

Park Associates (n. d.) Networked Gaming: Driving the Future [online] available from <http://www.parksassociates.com/research/reports/tocs/2005/networked_gaming.htm> [December 2005]

Hawkyard, M. ; Brown, O (2008) 'WILL ADVERGAMING BE THE NEXT BIG THING?.' Brand Strategy 227, 60-63

Life at Coventry University

With this short video, containing images and music, we want to give you
a view on our life at Coventry University. You'll see there's more to that than
books and libraries. Enjoy the movie!

Internet: same thing, different platform

A recent study, conducted in 2005, showed that mobile phones take over PC’s as Internet platform in some markets. But the PC remains the dominant platform. The use of wireless internet access through mobile phones is more common used than the use of Internet from a notebook in many areas. This statistic is driven by the massive install base of mobile phones all over the world, as well as more developed networks. In many global markets the Internet browsing via a wireless device is showing enormous growth with France, the United Kingdom and Japan showing the largest grow. Today fourty percent of all adults in Japan browse the Internet on their wireless handset. This is double the rate from 2003. However, the growth in Internet browsing on mobile phones is flattening in other leading markets like for example Canada. Wireless Internet access via a notebook PC appears to be the stronger out of home Internet platform in these markets. (Wright, 2006)

In 2004, twenty-five percent of mobile phone owners worldwide browsed the Internet on a wireless handset. This number grew to twenty-eight percent one year later. The growth came particularly from older users, thirty-five years and older. This indicates that surfing the Internet on a mobile phone is becoming mainstream. This also indicates a higher Average Revenue per Unit (ARPU) in the future for the industry. Consumers are becoming dependent on mobile phones as well as the new applications available on them. This ensures us that mobile phones will become the dominant Internet platform outside the home. In the long term a lot of online activities will be done by mobile phones. The reasons for this are convenience and the connection speed, although the latter one can be argued about. (Wright, 2006)

Today thirty-seven percent of all households that have at least one mobile phone sent and/or received an email on their phone. Wireless device activities, such as conducting financial transactions, sending and receiving digital pictures and downloading entertainment content, are growing. Another element to support that the mobile phone will be used as an Internet platform for a lot of online activities is the strong association between Internet usage and mobile phone ownership. A survey, conducted by The Face of the Web, showed that among the households online during the research, ninety percent had at least one mobile phone. (Wright, 2006)

What about the use of Internet through digital TV?

Currently, internet through digital TV is very little used and the possibilities are still limited. I even dare saying internet via IPTV will never become a big hit because of the restricted usage possibilities as only a remote control can give few commands.

On the other hand, the other way around is an enormous success. TV through the internet became a standard feature of the World Wide Web. Our television viewing habits changed drastically compared to 20 years ago. Viewers are now demanding broadcasting services anywhere, anytime, anyhow. That is why internet, became such a popular medium to watch video footage, whether it is a clip on You Tube of a whole season of a certain soap. And even mobile TV will be reality in 5 years. (Bociurkiw Marusya, 2008)

Having access to broadband internet and the world of television entertainment is in your reach. An incredible amount of TV is available on the Internet and we aren’t even talking about shows existing online only. Nowadays we use special internet channels like Hulu to watch our favourite television shows. A good video player and a large choice of shows, from current to a hand full of classic TV shows and movies, will satisfy the viewer. And Hulu isn’t the only channel player on the internet. (Grossman Lev, 2008)

These days, we are allowed to wave the television goodbye and strongly embrace the internet for being flexible and adoptable to each individual viewing behaviour. And that is exactly what a cell phone also is: flexible. By the speed mobile telehone technology is improving soon everybody will have the world wide web literally in his pocket. On the other hand it's just too bold to predict the end of regular computers. If you look to the new generation of netbooks we feel pretty comfortable the classic computer is not dead yet. The thruth is somewhere in between ... what do you think of Bill Gates opinion?

References:
Kenichi Ishii (2 December 2003)
Internet use via mobile phone in Japan [online] available from [6 March 2009]

Adam Wright (18 April 2006)
Mobile phones could soon rival the PC as world’s dominant Internet platform [online] available from [6 March 2009]

Bociurkiw Marusya (2008),
'Commentary Put on Your Bunny Ears, Take Your TV around the Block: Old and New Discourses of Gender and Nation in Mobile, Digital and HDTV.' Canadian Journal of Communication 33, 537-544

Grossman Lev (2008),
'My Life Without TV.' Time Atlanctic 171, 98-99