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'Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place'_Matt Hardisty
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The ineffectiveness of online marketing methods has lead to the need for collaboration whether in a commercial sense through 'anchor tenancies', or the more communitarian notions of 'virtual' networks. For the short termist 'IPO dot comers' it seems that they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand attempting to establish a viable and sustainable brand equity, whilst on the other, 'drive' people to their site under the dictate of the stock market valuation - increasingly based upon the number of people driven to the site. |
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To have any value in the market, they need to prove that they can get customers. In their rush to market however, they now stand accused of failing to understand the dynamics of branding, mistaking having a wacky name and an eye-catching logo for having a brand rather than the required consistent planning and development.
Dot com advertisers began dowsing their £5-£10m advertising budgets on 'broadcast' methods in both the off line world (such as television and posters) and the online world (banners), trying to extinguish their nerdy image and be as inclusive as possible, driving users to a single place that they would otherwise be incapable of finding. The aim is to establish first mover advantage in the Old World, before others enter into game of 'virtual land grab'. It is becoming increasingly apparent however, that such methods fail to use the potential for interactive, personalised communication and building a relationship with the consumer. Coupled with this, we are seeing a severe reduction in the effectiveness of such online 'broadcast' advertising methods for driving traffic. Banner click through rates which once stood at 3% now crawl at 0.5%, relegating the medium to short term special promotions. Similarly, research has shown that traffic rates returned to pre-advertising levels, illustrating that conventional media placement is only a short term solution.
Venture capital backed enterprises and those operated 'independently', are now turning to the reassuringly cheap 'viral' channels, such as e-mail, as a means of creating a buzz, generating word of mouth and more importantly retaining customers. As a result we are increasingly seeing the development of innovative mail attachments using flash, in order to create a stronger brand due to the lack of a physical presence. Fletcher Research shows that 10% of permission based email ads, where users freely give away their email addresses to receive such promotions, are clicked on by customers. It remains to be seen however, whether this form of 'paid for' communication through 'list brokers' (for example, xxxist.com) will survive given the prejudice built up by the Internet's embryonic junk mailings - evidenced by the growing number of people setting up multiple email addresses purely for 'spam' or unsolicited mailings. In addition, it is becoming apparent that many of the larger players have not sorted out their privacy issues. For example in the US, Double Click caused a storm of consumer protests after it was found piecing together data from two separate databases without users' consent, in order to build up consumer profiles. It is likely that with the increased use of avatars on web sites, more subversive methods will be sought. For example, you assume the identity of Kimura and suddenly you're striding through a street in 'Harajuku' wearing a pair of Evisu jeans. Along the way you pass Bjorn, playing the cow bell to the latest Nuphonic release and suddenly, bang, you're unknowingly embroiled in a circular play of signs. We have just entered into the dark side, where we progress from eye balls into the realms of mindscape.
