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When One Means ManyBy Alan Cooper The ability for dot.com start-ups to redefine industry business models has captured the imagination of entrepreneurs, investors and the media alike. For example, Priceline.com allows its users to set the price they wish to pay for goods and then suppliers bid for their business at that price. Flexible pricing has also impacted airlines and hotels. They no longer print brochures many months in advance with fixed prices. Instead they have introduced sophisticated yield management systems that continuously change the price in response to actual demand whether through call centres or via the new direct e-channels. Try it yourself at http://www.ebookers.com. Despite these forward thinking companies, most companies are still caught in the 20th century thinking and methods of mass production and mass promotion. In fact, many a dot.com company has been lured into similar promotional methods, typically spending up to 75% of their IPO fund with mass advertising on TV, in print and on the side of buses. The resulting heavy demands on their web sites may at first justify this expenditure, but is the web site visit a rewarding one for the user? Many web sites today are attempting to cater for a variety of users representing not just customers, or potential customers, but other stake holders as well: investors, suppliers, distributors, the community at large and the media. Unfortunately, many sites have an approach that leaves many visitors confused, frustrated and ultimately unsatisfied. The most common approach is to target the home page at the consumer and leave other stake holders to find the links to "their" pages. These links of course could be anywhere on the page and in any form, from minute text links to image links without any alternative text description. Do companies using this approach measure the number of visitors who never get beyond the home page? More importantly, do they ever try to find out why? Another approach is to have a generalised home page that gives equal prominence to all stake holder needs, with the next click of the mouse taking the user to their "real" home page. This may work for some more patient users, but those companies with a young, impatient or techno audience, expecting an immediate visual impact, may find this counter productive. A final, perhaps better approach, is to have sub-links (e.g. www.example.com/investors) but this needs co-ordination with the marketing department so that all promotional and other company external material shows clearly the appropriate URL. [Better still, the marketing department should be responsible for the web site]. But getting separate entry points for different stake holders is only part of the solution to capturing and keeping stake holders attention. As indicated above, users have differing behaviours. In fact they have a whole raft of behaviours and needs going beyond the intrinsic features delivered by the product or service. They have needs of status, aspiration, social, physiological and psychological needs to name a few. As the Internet and other new and emerging e-mediums expand they are embracing a wider audience, so it's becoming important to recognise and meet these differing needs. Web sites need moving beyond catering for just a narrow young audience with the latest PC technology. A recent Harris Interactive survey is reflecting such behaviours.
Meeting these needs may be simply a case of promoting different aspects and
in the real world the marketer can specifically target different media. TV
adverts can be placed within certain programs and print advertising in specific
publications with the broadcaster or publisher providing audience profile data
to aid placement. In the virtual world this is much more difficult. Let's say
for example, that in your own market space your consumers reflected the general
population as given by the Harris Interactive survey. If so, then your
"time sensitive materialist" would be irritated by pages of text
extolling the virtues of your brand. On the other hand, your "time
sensitive materialist" would be happy with a one click shopping cart and a
web site that recorded their credit card numbers and home address, just like
Amazon does. However, your "click and mortar" consumers would want a
list of their nearest store together with stock availability and, for heavy
items, details of a delivery service.
Like consumers, the needs of other stake holders will also vary: Investors from the pension funds like detailed analysis on capital employed, return on investment from different divisions and so on. On the other hand, private investor with windfall shares may simply like to know the date and amount of the last dividend and how they are affected by taxation. Other private investors may want to know what the company's environmental and ethical policies are, as well as how they are treating and motivating staff. Successfully meeting all these varied viewpoints through a web site is challenging, yet the challenge is set to increase. Today the standard way of accessing the Internet is through a PC and by connecting to a modem or corporate LAN. Tomorrow most users will be using other mediums. Like interactive TVs, personal digital assists (PDAs), mobile 'phones, game consoles, and kiosk systems, over both narrow and broadband networks. Delivering to these varied e-mediums is already consuming time and effort in many corporations. This is all very necessary, providing your target audience has these devices and they are appropriate to the required use. But it is also important to address the content issues and meet the varied needs of the users. Understanding the varied needs of consumers and other stake holders is of course not new. Back in the early nineties One to One Marketing was proposed by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers in their landmark book of the same name. At that time e-mediums were only just emerging. They were simple devices such as pagers and fax machines used predominately in a "push" mode. Today, many of the existing and newly emerging Internet devices allow users to "pull" information and, most importantly for one to one marketing, allowing users to engage in dialogue. This again brings challenges beyond providing suitable content. Content and dialogue need to be in a language and style that the user feels comfortable with. So, City Analysts will expect and be happy with shorthand terms like Oeics and reams of data in tabular format, but ordinary private investors will be looking for simple language, uncomplicated diagrams and extensive help when technical terms cannot be avoided. In many cases web pages will evolve to be more like applications. For example, they will have context sensitive help and easy access to glossaries. Multimedia may also be of benefit where this adds value, particularly where a user is using a digital TV, but other users with slow PCs or modems should have alternative text and small graphics. Ideally applications need to monitor user's capabilities and adjust the style and presentation as the user learns as well as take into account people's learning methods. For example, do they prefer words or pictures; a structured step by step approach or a more free flowing exploration? Beyond electronic interfaces these principles also apply to call centres. They need to evolve into customer knowledge centres so that human customer service representatives can also aid customer loyalty by adjusting content and style to the caller. Additionally there are other aspects that will influence the user interface
and the success of the business application. They include: Is all this possible? Already today we have rule based systems like BroadVision. Such systems are able to vary the content and style of a page according to user's profiles with these profiles being updated according to users viewing and purchasing behaviours. But these are early days. Companies need to be investing time and effort in first really understanding their stake holders and then more time and effort creating the varied styles and formats as well as the rules that drive their use. It's also a dynamic process. Profiles need to be reflecting not just user's increasing knowledge but also their changing lifestyles and aspirations. And just to add to the challenge, many users today are multiple stake holders. They can simultaneously be consumers, investors, employees, community members and belong to one or more pressure groups. In the digital world, companies should no longer be seeing their users as simple stereotypes. They should see them as multifaceted groups of people reflecting a diverse community and with needs served in many differing ways. Pool, Summer 2000 |
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