How can a band use the site as a marketing tool? Mike Clark, GD Worldwide:
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1
Cost of access. This is certainly a barrier for those who do not already own a home computer: a major expenditure for many households. The other main costs are the cost of
using an ISP to connect to the Internet and the cost of using the media to connect tele- phone or cable charges. Free access would certainly increase adoption and usage.
2
Value proposition. Customers need to perceive a need to be online – what can the Internet offer that other media cannot? Examples of value propositions include access to more
supplier information and possibly lower prices. In 2000, company advertisements started to refer to ‘Internet prices’.
3
Ease of use. This includes the ease of first connecting to the Internet using the ISP and the ease of using the web once connected.
4
Security. While this is only, in reality, a problem for those who shop online, the perception generated by news stories may be that if you are connected to the Internet then your
personal details and credit card details may not be secure. It will probably take many years for this fear to diminish as using the Internet slowly becomes established as a standard way
of purchasing goods.
5
Fear of the unknown. Many will simply have a general fear of the technology and the new media, which is not surprising since much of the news about the Internet non-adopters
will have heard will concern pornography, fraud and privacy infringements.
An attempt has been made to quantify the magnitude of barriers to access in a UK govern- ment-sponsored survey Booz Allen Hamilton, 2002 of different countries. Barriers for
individuals noted by the survey included:
No perceived benefit Lack of trust
Security problems Lack of skills
Cost.
Activity 4.2
Understanding enablers and barriers to consumer adoption
Purpose
To identify reasons why businesses or consumers may be encouraged online or may resist.
Activity
Access a recent survey in your country of attitudes to the Internet. In particular, you should concentrate on reasons why customers have used the Internet or have not used
the Internet at all. A compilation of research about the Internet and technology adop- tion is available at www.clickz.comstats. Examples of data are provided in Figures 1.10
and 1.14.
1 Summarize and explain the reasons for the levels of usage of the medium for
different activities.
2 What are the main enablers and barriers to higher levels of adoption of these different
activities and which actions should organizations take to increase adoption? Alternatively, devise an ad hoc survey to investigate attitudes to and use of the Internet
using friends, family or classmates as respondents. Example questions might include the following. What have you bought online? If not, why not? How many hours do you
spend online each month? How many e-mails do you receive or send? What stops you using the Internet more? What aspects of the Internet are you concerned about?
Answers to activities can be found at www.pearsoned.co.ukchaffey