Fundamentals of E-business - Essay Example

?FUNDAMENTALS OF E-BUSINESS Table of Contents FUNDAMENTALS OF E-BUSINESS Table of Contents 2 Executive Summary 3 Introduction 3 Website Structure Design and Concepts 4 Findings 6 Branding 6 Social Networking 7 Mass Customisation 9 Conclusion and Recommendations 11 References 12 Executive Summary Internet technology has revolutionized the functioning of business organizations and individuals alike. Words like Google have become terms of everyday usage among individuals. Marketers are essentially using this channel to reach out to new and prospective customers. The advent of social networking sites has further bolstered this channel as a means of getting closer to the customers. The present study would analyse the website of Sina which is a news and media company that provides news and other related content on its website. The study would evaluate the brand with regards to the design structure and content as well as analysis of the branding strategy of the organization using the online channel. Apart from this aspects of social networking and mass customisation would also be included in the study. The study would analyse the website of the organization on the basis of all the above mentioned elements. This would also include analysis of the demerits as well as possible corrective measures or strategies. The study would end with a section that summarises the findings of the study and also puts forth set of plausible recommendations that would enable the firm to ensure sustainable competitive advantage in the market. Introduction The business environment prevailing in this world resembles a highly competitive market environment where business organizations are engaged in cut throat competition. Globalisation has also led to business organizations breaching geographical and political boundaries to reach out to new markets to leverage the potential of the opportunities of different markets. This has also enhanced the aspect of competition in the business markets as firms are essentially resorting to price war that has further intensified competition as the profit margins of the companies have been squeezed. In order to differentiate the products and services firms are essentially adopting different means to reach out to customers in an attempt to increase awareness and improve the brand image and positioning of their products and services among the minds of the target market audience. The advancement in internet technology has opened yet another channel for business organizations to showcase their products and services to a wide and large number of target market audiences. The immense reach and potential of this channel has made its one of the powerful channels for business organizations to showcase their products. The growing popularity of online social networking sites has also opened up greater opportunities for this channel. The present study would analyse the online communication channel of Sina which is a leading media house based in China. The study would evaluate the aspect of web design as well as it underlying concepts as well as branding, mass customisation and the aspect of social networking that affects the brand image of the organization. The study would also have a set of plausible recommendations for the organization that would enable it to maintain a roadmap of positive growth and sustainability in the business markets. Website Structure Design and Concepts In order to effectively leverage the opportunities of the online channel it is highly essential to have a website that has a good design and attractiveness so as to make an appeal among the members of the target audience. It is also essential to include a suitable content for readers and visitors so as to create awareness of the website in the minds of the customers. Sina is a media company that larges uses the online channel for its business. The main areas of business include news and related contents, mobile service, online and community gaming as well as online shopping portal. The revenues of the firm mainly arise from advertising and mobile services (Sina, 2009). Website design is a two step process that includes two main processes of planning and implementation. Planning involves determining and defining the objectives of creating the web page. It also includes determining the target market audience of the organization that would be targeted with the website. Designing the contents forms the next step as it largely includes the most important part of the web designing process. After designing the contents the layout and contents the design of the web page including home page design are finalised so as to create an attractive web page that effectively targets the market audience. The implementation phase would involve prototype testing that would provide serious feedbacks regarding the content of the web page. Errors and discrepancies should be identified and corrective measures should be adopted so as to make the web page more attractive and sustainable (Lawrenceville Press, 2006, p.115). The analysis of the web page of Sina reveals the rich content of the web page. The looks are very simple but contain an array of information regarding news events that includes news from the areas of politics, sports, business, lifestyle and entertainment. The web page is available both in Chinese as well as English language. Use of Chinese language assumes significance with the target market audience. It also has a section that helps in converting Chinese text to English and vice versa. This allows it to target both the Chinese as well as non Chinese individuals who have an interest in the news of China. The following heading would provide better analysis of the aspects of branding, social networking as well as mass customisation of the organization’s website. Findings Branding Branding is another essential aspect of an organization as customers are largely known to use this element as a differentiating factor. The analysis of the web page of Sina reveals a favourable branding element. The distinct and the quality of information available on the web page make it one of the most informative websites for news and other related information. The web page has links that connect to different news items ranging from diverse topics that includes political, lifestyle, business and sports news items. The web page also contains a section that has a collection of pictures, city guide etc that helps tourists and foreign visitors getting attracted to the website. The large array of information well as the quality of the contents enhances the brand image and positioning of the organization in the minds of the target customers. The web page has a simple design and does not use attractive colours or multimedia. The web developers have largely used a strategy of keeping the web page simple but informative. Any visitor visiting the web page would be flooded with an array of information from diverse topics. The simple nature of the web page would allow easy navigation that is most suited for web pages of news based organizations. Search options also exist for the web page that largely helps in finding news items of choice in the web page. Internet and web based brand loyalty is often referred to as electronic loyalty which is a loyalty for web pages for customers or visitors for searching any information. The reliability of the information provided by Sina as well as the volume of information helps in customers getting back to the web site every time they want to surf any content related to the web page of the organization. The display and nature of contents have been identified as the most influencing elements of a web page that helps in overall development of the brand image of the organization. This is perhaps the reason that organizations are essentially trying to use better display and contents so as to ensure better flow of traffic to the website and also to ensure a feeling of trust among the customers so as to generate a better brand image of the organization in the minds of the customers (Gommans, Krishnan, & Scheffold, 2001, p.41, 59). The web page of Sina contains all the necessary ingredients to help achieve a suitable positioning for the brand in the minds of the customer. The USP of the web page appears to be the aspect of being simple yet rich and diversified in content. This is perhaps the most important element that drives the brand image of news and media organization. Social Networking Social networking has become the buzzword of today’s younger generation. Online social networking sites like facebook, twitter etc have largely changed the behavioural and social aspects of individuals. Marketers and web developers are largely trying to harness the reach and popularity of these online social networking sites to leverage the opportunities of these websites. The most distinct advantage of online social networking sites is that it enables a steady source of communication and a very limited cost. Visitors have the option of sharing any content which they like and thus help in spreading awareness about a product or a brand in the market. The immense popularity of these websites especially among the younger age group makes it’s a channel for business organizations to reach out to a large number of target market audience at very limited costs (Clow & Baack, 2011, p.462). The importance of social networking can be analysed from the fact that the total spending towards advertisements on social networking sites in USA was estimated to increase by about 200 percent by the end of 2011. A research report states that about 80 percent of individuals rely upon information from the social networking sites towards making a purchase decision. Big brand like Apple, Toyota have largely used this channel to harness benefits for the organization. Organizations are also using the online social networking channel to reach out to customers so as to maintain better relationship with the customers. Social networking and he online channel also offers a distinct advantage as they do not have any intermediaries and can reach out directly to the prospective customers (Corporate Executive Board, 2008, p.1-5). The analysis of the website of Sina reveals that it does not have linkage with the online social networking sites. The web page however has links with different forums where visitors can express their views and comments. The web page also has an online voting area where news items of popularity and importance are being opened up to the visitors with options to express their views about a particular news item. The website however scores poorly with the rest of its counterparts in the industry with regards to its linkage with the popular social networking sites. Harnessing the benefits of social networking would help the company to reach out to a larger target market audience thus enhancing the reach and popularity of the web page. This would also enhance its positioning and brand image so as to enable greater sustainability of the organization. This aspect also assumes importance considering the fact that social networking websites have become very popular with the members of the target market audience. They also have immense reach that can help the firm to showcase its products and services to the targeted audience. The popularity of contents featured on the web page of Sina also have significant correlation with the age group of the members of individuals who are common with using popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. This calls for the immediate need for the marketers of the organization to have a proper access and linkage with the social networking sites. Putting up links that can help the visitors to share important and significant news items on the social networking sites would provide an opportunity for the firm to enhance its popularity and reach among the members of the target market audience. However caution must also be exercised while using these social networking sites as any misinformation about the organization can also spread like wildfire that can actually lead to considerable damage to the brand image and positioning of the organization. Mass Customisation Mass customisation largely includes use of internet and computer aided technology to enhance the efficiency of business organizations. In case of the context of the present study the aspect of internet and website would be used to analyse the mass customisation effects on the organization. In case of service based organizations like Sina mass customisation would include providing news content of efficient quality to a large number of diverse customers from varying fields. For example Dell uses its website to promote and showcase about 160million products. Ford also has a similar strategy of showcasing its products to a large variety of target market audience. Sina can largely use the internet to create a customisation of price determination that would allow the firm to sell content to corporate as well as retail clients across the world. Use of ICT can also reap large scale benefits for an organization (Smits, Toppen & Ribbers, 2002, p.1558-1559). Mass customisation using web page involves an analysis into the online marketing mix that includes elements of product, price, place, promotions and process (Reimer & Totz, 2001, p.4). Product includes the nature of the actual product offering offered by the organization to its clients. In case of Sina it includes the nature of content that would be offered by the organization. Mass customisation in products would involve use of highly effective and reliable news content. It would also include providing exclusive articles and in a short time frame that would help include the aspect of exclusiveness and speed. Ethical content is also important for organizations like Sina as customers largely consider this aspect while reading a news item from a particular website. Pricing involves selecting an optimal pricing strategy for the products and services. Presently most of the content of Sina is available free of cost. However the company can also include a section whereby it could sell contents and news items after proper copyrights. This would enhance the nature of profitability of the firm. The company can have a dedicated section of the website or a link that would help users to navigate to the new site that offers contents at a price. Place involves a choice between option of a bricks and click model or a clicks model. A suitable strategy for Sina would be a clicks only model as it would help make the web page popular. Moreover considering the nature of its contents a clicks model would largely help in enhancing the reach and potential of the organizations and its products in the business markets. Promotions would involve techniques to use the online channel for communicating its intended message and products to the member of the target market. Banners advertisements, spots of other companies can be put up on the web page of Sina to generate revenues for the firm. The firm can also use social networking to generate awareness about its products as these channels have immense reach and popularity that can help the firm to gain competitive advantage in the market. Process involves all the steps that a firm must undertake to make the website user friendly and would enable fast and quick access to related contents and articles. In case of news based websites it is important to have a search option that helps visitors to use this option and search out for relevant materials on the website. Incorporating these aspects along with a high quality of content would not only generate mass customisation but would also help the firm to generate more revenues for maintaining profitability and sustainability. Conclusion and Recommendations The analysis of the different elements of the website of Sina reveals considerable potential with the kind of product offering and the targeted customers. The nature of content and the web design appears to be highly innovative and largely customised to meet the needs of the target market audience. However the website scores poorly on the aspect of using online social networking to increase the web traffic and to make it popular among the members of the target audience. Hence in order to generate better sustainability it must use the immense reach of these social networking sites by enabling and providing linkage with different social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. This would enable them to reach out to a large target audience at largely inexpensive rates. The contents of the web page should also be made more effective by including more popular news categories. Banners advertisements and spots must be used to improve the page rank of the website in different search engines. Finally the company must incorporate a search engine optimisation strategy that would help in improving the page ranking of the website. Page rankings assume significance considering the popularity of search engines like Yahoo and Google. Adoption of these strategies along with proper monitoring and feedback would help the firm to establish itself as a global brand in the business market. References Clow, K.E. & Baack, D. (2011). Cases in Marketing Management. SAGE. Corporate Executive Board. (2008). Leveraging Social Networking Sites in Marketing Communications. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.blueplanetstudio.com/images/Newsletter/Leveraging-Social-Media-Networking-Sites-in-Marketing-Communications.pdf [Accessed on May 14, 2011]. Gommans, M., Krishnan, K., & K. Scheffold. (2001). From Brand Loyalty to E-Loyalty: A Conceptual Framework. [Pdf]. Available At: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.105.3103&rep=rep1&type=pdf. [Accessed on May 17, 2011]. Journal of Economic and Social Research. Vol. 3, no. 1. pp.43-58. Lawrenceville Press. (2006). Website Development. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.lvp.com/chapters/DMX04-04.pdf [Accessed on May 17, 2011]. Reimer, K. & Totz, C. (2001). The many faces of personalization- An integrative economic overview of mass customization and personalization. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.wi.uni-muenster.de/wi/forschen/veroeff/riemer_totz-personalization.pdf. [Accessed on May 17, 2011]. Sina. (2009). Brief Introduction. [Online]. Available at: http://corp.sina.com.cn/eng/sina_intr_eng.htm [Accessed on May 17, 2011]. Smits, M., Toppen, R., & Ribbers, P. (2002). HOW ELECTRONIC NETWORK ORGANISATIONS ENABLE MASS CUSTOMISATION IN FINANCIAL MARKETS. [Pdf]. Available at: http://sdaw.info/asp/aspecis/20020093.pdf [Accessed on May 17, 2011]. Read More