• Creating an Electronic Storefront

• Creating an Electronic Storefront

In opening an electronic storefront, a company has,two choices: it can buy space on a commercial online service or it can open its own Web site. Buying a location

on a commercial online service involves either renting storage space on the online service's computer or establishing a link from the company's own computer to

(he online service's shopping mall. A retailer, for example, can link to America Online, CompuServe and Prodigy, gaining access to the millions of consumers

who subscribe to these services. The online services typically design the store­ front for the company and introduce it to their subscribers. For these services, the company pays the online service an annual fee plus a small percentage of the

company's online sales, In addition to buying a location on an online service, or as an alternative, thousands of companies have now created their own Web sites. These sites vary greatly in purpose and content. The most basic type is a corporate Web site.­' 1

These sites are designed to handle interactive communication initiated by the consumer. They seek to build customer good will and to supplement other sales

channels rather than to sell the company's products directly. Corporate Web sites typically offer a rich variety of information and other features in an effort to answer customer questions, build closer customer relationships and generate

excitement about the company. Corporate Web sites generally provide infor­ mation about the company's history, its mission and philosophy, and the products

and services that it offers. They might also tell about current events, company personnel, financial performance and employment opportunities. Many corporate Web sites also provide exciting entertainment features to attract and hold visitors. Finally, the site might also provide opportunities for customers to ask questions or make comments through e­mail before leaving the site.

Other companies create a marketing Web site. These sites are designed to engage consumers in an interaction that will move them closer to a purchase or Other companies create a marketing Web site. These sites are designed to engage consumers in an interaction that will move them closer to a purchase or

For example, Toyota operates a marketing Web site f i t www.toyota.com. Once a potential customer elieks in, the car maker wastes no time trying to turn the enquiry into a sale. The site offers plenty of entertainment

and useful information, from cross­country trip guides and tips for driving with kids, to golf and outdoor events. But the site is also loaded with more

serious selling" features, such as detailed descriptions of current Toyota models and information on dealer locations and services, complete with maps and dealer Web links, Visitors who want to go further can fill out an online order form (supplying" name, address, phone number and e­mail address) for brochures and a free interactive CD­ROM that shows off the features of Toyota models. The chances are good that before the CD­ROM arrives, a local dealer will call to invite the prospect in for a test drive. 32

Business­to­business marketers also make good use of marketing" Web sites. For example, corporate buyers can visit Sun Microsystems' Web site (www.sun.eom), select detailed descriptions of Sun's products and solutions,

request sales and service information and interact with staff members. Customers visitingGK Plastics'Web site can draw'on more than 1,500 pages of information to get answers about the company's products any time and from anywhere in the world. And FedEx's Web site (www.fedex.com) allows customers to schedule their own shipments, request a courier and track their packages in transit.

Creating a Web site is one thing"; getting people to visit the site is another. The key is to create enough value and excitement to get consumers to come to the site, stick around and come back again. This means that companies must constantly update their sites to keep them fresh and exciting. Doing" so involves

time and expense, but the expense is necessary if the online marketer wishes to cut through the increasing online clutter.

For some types of product, attracting visitors is easy. Consumers buying new' cars, computers or financial services will be open to information and marketing initiatives from sellers. Marketers of lower­involvement products, however, may

face a difficult challenge in attracting Web­site visitors. As one veteran notes: 'IS you're shopping for a computer and you see a banner that says, "We've ranked the

top 12 computers to purchase", you're going to click on the banner. [But] what kind of banner could encourage any consumer to visit dentalfloss.com?'­' 11 For such low­interest products, the company should create a corporate Web site to

online advertising answer customer questions and build good will, using it only to supplement selling Placing advertisements

efforts through other marketing" channels.

on the Internet in special Next, let us take a look ,­jt how advertisements are placed online. sections offered by commi­'rcial online services, as banner <irf,s

• Placing Advertisements Online

(hat pop up while Companies can place online advertisements in any of three ways. First, they can computer subscribers

place classified ads in special sections offered by the major commercial online are surfing online

services. The ads are listed according to when they arrived, with the latest ones services or Web sites, or

in Internet news groups heading the list. Second, ads can be placed in certain Internet newsgroups that

tha( have been set up for are set up for commercial purposes. Finally, the company ean buy online ads that commercial purposes.

pop up while subscribers are surfing online services or Web sites. Such ads include banner ads. pop­up windows, 'tickers' (banners that move across the

Forms of Direct Marketing • 973

screen) and 'roadblocks' (full­screen ads that users must pass through to get to other screens they wish to view). For example, a Web user or America Online subscriber who is looking up airline schedules 01" fares might find a flashing

banner on the screen exclaiming "Rent a car from Alamo and get up to 2 days free!' To attract visitors to its own Web site, Toyota sponsors Web banner ads on other sites, ranging from major Internet publisher sites like ESPNet SportZone (www.espm.CQm) to Parent Soup (www.parcntsoup.com), a kind of online coffee Match through which mums and dads exchange views.

Web advertising is on the increase. However, many marketers still question its value as an effective advertising tool. Costs are reasonable compared with those of other advertising media and it is relatively easy to create a site: as little as K300 a year will buy an Internet address, create a site with a few pages and launch it. Web advertising on more popular sites such as ESPNet SportsZone, which attracts more than 500,000 Web surfers and 20 million 'hits' ­ the number of times the site is accessed ­ per week, costs about 8300,000 per year. Netscape, the popular

Web­browser site, charges about 8360,000 per year and delivers an estimated

1 million impressions. Still, Web surfers can easily ignore these banner ads, and often do. Ad Web locations that sell advertising space are still working" to develop good measures of advertising impact. Thus, although many firms are experi­ menting with Web advertising, it still plays only a minor role in their promotion mixes. For example, the Internet is estimated to have attracted about S200 million in total ad revenue over 1996, primarily In buying banners, with the majority of it originating in the United States. This can be put into perspective

when we consider that a company such as Procter & Gamble spent over $150 million on advertising in the United Kingdom alone over the same period. J4