Developing and Maintaining a Website
Before we discuss marketers' Web objectives in detail, it is important that you understand the role of the website—the place where information is made available to users of the Internet by the provider. Developing and maintaining a successful website requires significant time and effort. To attract visitors to the site and have them return to it requires a combination of creativity, effective marketing, and continual updating of the site. In addition, other media must be integrated with the website, as noted in the introduction to this chapter.
Exhibit 15-1 Hot Hot Hot founders demonstrate what makes a website work
Exhibit 15-1 Hot Hot Hot founders demonstrate what makes a website work
Exhibit 15-1 demonstrates what makes a website work. Making a site work and having one work successfully are not the same thing, however, and whether a site is effective is determined by what it is that management hopes to achieve through the site. As already noted, some sites are offered for informational purposes only (this tends to be more common in the business-to-business market than the consumer market), while others approach the market much more aggressively. For example, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, the manufacturer of Huggies brand (diapers, Pull-Ups training pants, and Little Swimmers swim pants) has been extremely successful in its Internet marketing efforts. The Huggies homepage (Exhibit 15-2) goes well beyond providing information. The site has additional objectives, such as developing a relationship with parents, establishing a brand image for the products, and supporting sales. Part of the site is
Exhibit 15-2
homepage
Huggies designed to develop one-on-one relationships by offering a free sample to anyone who sends in his or her name, address, and e-mail address. Thousands of people have responded to the offer, providing Kimberly-Clark with an enormous database useful for future marketing efforts. Another part targets parents visiting other websites such as CTW.org (Children's Television Workshop—producer of Sesame Street), Women.com, iVillage.com, and BabyZone.com. In addition, anyone typing in the keywords diapers or infant care on the portal AltaVista is greeted with a Huggies banner ad. To bring visitors to the site, Huggies provides tips on baby care, chats with other parents, access to other baby links, and additional information about Huggies products. Finally, to support sales, the site directs customers to the nearest retail store that sells Huggies brands.
As the Huggies example demonstrates, a website can be an effective tool for the marketer. Depending on the nature of one's business and one's marketing objectives for the Internet, a website can range from being a very simple source of information about the company and its products to being a powerful tool for developing a brand image, sampling, and even generating sales. Following are some of the objectives sought by those marketing on the Internet.
Continue reading here: Communications Objectives
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