Internet Marketing Management - Essay Example

Internet Marketing Introduction: This is an assignment to evaluate the web site of Breitling watches. The web site has been critically analysed after discussing the theories of Internet Marketing, its implementation in the said web site, comparison with competitors and suggestion to improve the website to be competitive. Breitling Instruments: This Company was established in 1884 by Leon Breitling in St.Imier, Switzerland. This company specialises in making chronographs and precision counter for scientific and industrial use only. After a short success Breitling shifted to Chaux-de-fonds. In1914 the founder passed away and son, Gaston, took over the company. Aeronautics had made spectacular developments after 1914. In the year 1923 Breitling developed the independent chronograph push piece with automatic start and return-to-zero functions. Significant progress was made in the aviation industry between 1923 and 1942. Breitling launched the chronomat, first of its kind chronograph fitted with circular slide rule. American armed forces also became the clients of Breitling Instruments. The aviation industry was growing with leaps and bounds. Jet aircrafts had been developed and the first International passenger jet flight had been launched. Breitling achieved a major mile stone in 1962 when Astronaut Scott Carpenter wore the COSMONAUTE during his orbital flight. Breitling reached a major mile stone in 1969 with the launch of self winding chronograph. In 1979 Ernest Schneider a Pilot, watch manufacturer took over the reigns of Breitling from Willy Breitling. Chronomat was launched in 1984 and it becomes the best selling chronograph in Breitling collection. The military aviation industry was growing with leaps and bounds. Aircrafts like Stealth bombers were being developed. In 1999 after completing 100 years in Chronograph making Breitling submits its entire collection to Swiss official chronometer testing institute. Breitling inaugurates its new head quarters in Grenchen, Switzerland in the year 2000. New developments are happening in Breitling as they strive to make the finest chronographs in the world. Breitling Products: Breitling manufactures and sells Chronographs only. There are various models such as Navimeter, Windrider, Professional, Aeromarine. Apart from this they have very high end product which is the "Breitling for Bentley" collection. This collection focuses on high end customers who value tradition, performance and novelty value of the product being purchased. What is a chronograph A watch with two independent time systems: one indicates the time of day, and the other measures brief intervals of time. Counters registering seconds, minutes and even hours can be started and stopped as desired, thus enabling the exact timing of an event. Internet Marketing Strategies: While developing a marketing strategy, it is important to consider the environment in which the business functions. Porter (Kotler, 282) has identified five forces to determine profit attractiveness. These are: Competitors: Consider the web sites that offer the same products. New Entrants: Offsite competitors and new people in the business. Customers: The people visiting the site. Suppliers: Companies offering parts of products, web hosting software firms. Substitutes: Other media used for product promotion. Besides this, "SWOT" Analysis could also be used. Strength and weakness is dependent on the marketers internal environment Opportunity and Threats are dependent on the external environment. Strength: How is your product/service better than the competition Why should a customer feel delighted by using your product or service Weakness: What are the opportunity areas in your product /service and how they can be over-come Opportunity: The marketer should strike at the right opportunity and the right time and should target the right people (Customer). Threats: The Marketer should know exactly what are the hurdles in Marketing the product(Technology , Competitors) Internet Marketing strategy gives you a measurable way to position your product/service in such a way that the customer who is looking for what you have to offer finds you easily. Strategies can be long term or short term depending upon the product being sold or the marketer. e.g. if an online store is closing down and has to clear its stocks then the store would use a short term strategy in which the store might opt for Pay per click ,Group discounts or offers , extensively reduced prices. Long-term strategies are being used by companies who have establish tem selves or are well established and they want to reach out to the customer they are targeting. A very good example of this strategy is the web site of Europe rail. Their site is being updated on a regular basis and list all the offers according to the customer's needs and the tourist season. Web sites are three types. Product Web site: The marketer in tends to sell products through this website e.g. www.amazon.com , www.firstandsecond.com, www.ebay.com. All these web sites are selling tangible products. Service web site: The marketer intends to sell a service he/she intends to provide or educate the customer about his/her service. E.g. websites of doctors, job placement websites (www.monster.com , www.naukri.com), lawyers, website designers. Information web site: A Marketer uses this web site to provide information about the product and services he/she is selling via Internet or through traditional medium of Retailers. This is also applicable for web sites giving general information on various topics. The information can be searched using key words e.g. www.lucknowinfo.com . Site name to be mentioned. The Breitling website: Staying in the new era, Breitling has developed an extensive information web portal. This web site is very illustrious. There is an emphasis given on using flash images, partitions and a distinctive tool bar. The web site is trying to create an upmarket image which would attract genuine chronograph enthusiasts who desire to seek information before they make the purchase hence the web site does not have the provision of purchasing the product. This can be seen in their website in the "since 1884" section. Breitling has given the customer a glimpse of its history adding a snob value to the product along with the assurance to highest quality standards and service levels. There is a stress on the people who developed Breitling. The grey area here is that the developments up to the year 2002 have been captured but the website does not mention any developments after 2002. The developments of Breitling products have been compared with the development of the aviation history making it a product which is synonymous with the aviation industry. The Breitling web site is an Information website as per the definition of the same mentioned above. The strategy used in the website can be understood after the extensive of the general strategies mentioned below. While formulating the strategies, various laws could be used. One of them is AIDMA Attention, Interest, Desire, Memory, and Action. This can better be explained by the following graph. Source: Hiroki Tanahashi, [online] The websites should not only serve as a place for product information but also provide supplementary articles in this regard so as to affect the attention stage . If the product catches the attengtion of the customer then there is a desire to buy the product and service , hence the customer remebers the product or service and when required the product/service is bought.. The website should include the opinions, comments and feelings of customers who have purchased or used products and services, featuring communication between customers in online communities and communication between customers and the company, and including best-seller lists and the like are effect ways to motivate customers in the Affect Stage towards taking action. The site should be designed in a fashion that the customer can make the purchase with ease. Breitling perspective: Breitling through the web site in this competitive world id trying to gain recognition as the world's oldest and best chronograph manufacturer. To generate interest and awareness for new customers the web site has complete history and developments, this portrays an image of commitment from the company. Slowly the product has been positioned with the aviation industry and compared with the developments in aviation. This has been done to add value to the product and gives an image that Breitling is a company which believes in constant improvement and technological development. Hence the company is positioning the product for professionals. Their punch line reflects the same "Instruments for Professionals". Thus "User positioning Strategy "has been used. Innovator Theory: This theory states that there are customers who would like to buy a product as soon as it is launched. They tend to focus on the innovative value or novelty of the product rather than the usability and price. Innovators are a very small percentage of buyers. The next level is Opinion leaders who make or break a product /service. Their opinion matters the most. They always look for novelty along with cost per benefit in that product as compared to older products or currently available products. This theory is described by the illustrated diagram given below. source: Schiffman and Kanuk (540) The Marketer should get an endorsement from the Opinion leaders and the same should be visible in their website. This authenticates the claims made by the company The website can be designed differently for different markets and different segment i.e. Innovators to late majority. E.g. yahoo has different web sites for India and USA (www.yahoo.com , www.yahoo.co.in ), Google had different websites for India China. The Indian website is available in different languages. The Breitling Perspective: This product has been positioned in such a way that it portrays an image of a product being used by Innovators and Opinion leaders. They have stated the same in the history of Breitling were an astronaut has been named. Breitling has associated with a brand like Bentley, which speaks of quality and style statement. This gives us clarity on the target market/customer. Breitling has tried to promote prestige and performance. Branding: Kotler (444) has defined brand as name, term, sign or symbol or combination of them intended to identify goods or services of one seller or group of sellers or to differentiate them from those of competitors. A brand conveys a message to the customer related to the attributes, benefits, value, and financials, culture, personality In other words branding is a promise to the customer to give him the quality, value and service. E.g. the customer would value the promise attached to a brand like Honda but would not bother to even look at Kia motors even if they provide financial benefits. This is because Honda has developed its brand over a period of time and delivered what it promised were as Kia motors had to shut shop and they were acquired by a leading Motor company. Online branding is no different. A customer would make a purchase in a particular website if he/she is sure of the quality of service being provided. E.g. A customer would never think twice before using a credit card on Amazon or Barnes and Noble because they are established brands. They deliver the products and services on time and the customer is sure that the transactions are secure. This means a marketer should provide flawless service with value for money. This would establish the brand and customers will value it and would trust the brand. There several golden rules for online branding: The brand name should define what the marketer does. Let the customer know what you do rather than emphasise who you are. Authenticate the website by putting the picture of the CEO or spokesman and the said person should be reachable via email. The website should be designed in such a way that you develop a fan following for the products and services you sell. This creates a positive image of the website. The website should be exhaustive and self explanatory to a layman. The website design is very important and should be chosen with care. The website should provide solution for customers every problem. E.g. if your website sells printers then you should provide support for all printers available and printing related problems. The web site should be one stop shop. The website should be visible everywhere. They should target websites and provide links on websites where a target customer would visit. News letter should be published so that the customers are aware of the latest developments on your website. The Breitling Strategy: Breitling is a considerably deep brand as it although does not convey all the levels of meanings, but manages to convey quite a few. Breitling has been launched as a Manufacturer's Brand with a Blanket Family Name for all its watches. The company follows a Line Extension Strategy as it introduces additional items in the same product category. Advertising: Advertising refers to a non personal, paid form of presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services.(Kotler,627) . Advertising can achieve the purpose of inform, persuade or remind. It is very important that the proper message reaches the target customer. Internet advertising is of various types: Banner Ads: One of the most powerful form. If the Site content matches the banner ad subject, a powerful branding affects results. It is the oldest form of internet advertising. Interstitial Ads: They are the pop up ads that appear after one clicks to a link and is about to go where he intends to. Coupon Deals: Special coupons that give special deals on every purchase made through internet. Pay per click: These are banner ads where the payment is made only when someone clicks on the banner. Sponsorships: Here a part of the site is sponsored by the advertiser and gets to place his message at a place where visibility is maximum. Listings: Are often like directory advertising, were identified by practitioners as a major component of marketing communication plans - especially for business-to-business companies. Corporate communications that are "pulled" by consumers are not limited to Websites. Other forms include chat rooms, blogs, consumer reviews, bulletin boards, fantasy communities, brand-related games, and Web casts. All of these forms of Internet advertising have the potential to build relationships between consumers and brands. Breitling Perspective: Website of the company serves as an advertising tool. It is not a transaction oriented website. It has hyperlinks attached so as to get information about models. It serves the informative function of advertising. . Web Site Design Web site offering a product or service is like a retail outlet in Internet marketing. If the presentation is good and the customer feels comfortable in surfing your website, then the company can expect business or else it will turn away customers and they would indulge in negative publicity. Layout: The layout of a website should be simple and interactive. This would help the customer in finding what he/she is looking for in a short span of time. The elements of interface such text, icons, pictures should compliment the product being sold. To make a customer pay, we should offer him/her the product he/she is looking for and the customer spend less time in searching for it e.g. If we have a book store designed as a maze and the books are arranged neither by Topic or by the name of author. In case the sales will decline. The web site designer and the marketer should use the KISS principle "Keep It Simple Stupid". Presence: The web site should make its presence felt in the world of Internet Marketing. A very good tool available these days is "Search Engine Optimisation". The web site should be optimised in such a way that it appears in the top 5 searches in major search engines like www.google.com and www.altavista.com. The marketer should make sure that the web designer should not use frames as it presents problems to the search engines. Design: The website should be designed in a way that it is complimenting the product/service being sold. The design should be comforting to the customer's eyes and the site should not be cluttered. An e.g. of a cluttered web site is www.irctc.co.in . Quality of Content: The content should be of high quality. In well designed web site details like Price, Product image, Product details should be mentioned. To facilitate the search engines key phrases and Key tags should be used. The content should be extensive and should answer all the queries of the customers and a FAQ section should be there for typical and atypical questions. Certain search engines like Google depend on the quality and quantity of content. The website should load fast or else the customer would not like to spend time on your web site. In addition to this the customer should be able to make the purchase in less number of stages and the purchase button should be promonent.The web site should use high security standards for Credit Card and Bank transfer payment e.g. verisafe. Colour Scheme: This should be chosen with care. The background colours and colours used in fonts and links should compliment. If white or grey is being used as a background colour then there are various options available but if black or dark colour is used then the options get limited. The colour scheme should compliment the product being sold. The marketer should stress on the use of light background such as white or grey with dark fonts. The colour scheme used should be soothing to the eyes and should not glare. The web site should use round edges and the text should not be written on the pictures. The website should be such that the customer can print it and read it later. Tool Bar: The tool bar should have all the links such as Home page, Contact us, Sign In, Product Catalogue etc. These links should lead the customer to the right page without opening too many links which would eventually confuse the customer. Breitling website analysis Presence: Breitling: The Marketers has optimised the web site well. If searched in www.google.com , Breitling appears in the number three spot. This is an advantage over other manufacturers but it loose out when the customer opens the web site. Colour Scheme: Breitling: The colour scheme used is very dull. The colours used are dark brown with yellow, orange (Various shades). The colour scheme gives a very gloomy appearance and a novice would think that the web site is associated with spiritual products and services and the marketer is trying to promote supernatural services. The colour scheme should compliment the punch line. Professionals value their time and the customer needs a lot time to access their website. The colour scheme did not change even after accessing other hyper links. Design, Layout and Content: Breitling: The logo of the company is missing. The primary font used to write the companies name is too large. The website takes a lot of time to load and tests the patience of the customer. Picture of the primary product being sold is not available when the website is loading. This misleads the customer. When the customer clicks on the various models, then only in select cases the customer can view the picture of the chronograph. The distinct borders in the website add to the clutter in an already cluttered web site. The customer can find the features of the chronograph. Graphics are cluttered. The content is extensive but the presentation lacks professionalism. Major features of the Chronograph are not mentioned next to the picture. Celebrity endorsement missing. Tool Bar: Breitling: Tool bar is very distinct with links to the company's history, Various Models. There are hyper links in the bottom of the website. The positioning is odd. Certain hyperlinks are very small and some of them are pictures with hyper links. To sum it symmetry is not there. Suggestions: Breitling should use lively or aggressive colours such as Shades of white, Grey, and Black. Yellow should not be used. The content is fine but it should be easily accessible to the customer. The website takes too much time to load; hence the customer looses interest in the product. The main features of the product should be highlighted instead of history. The graphics should be related to product. The flash Introductions makes the web site even slower. The tool bar can be changed and the individual hyper links can be mentioned on the top of the web site. Logo of the company is missing. We can only se it if we click on the hyper links. The logo should be a permanent feature, ideally on the top left corner of the screen, with the punch line. Links to this website should be present in web sites usually visited by the target segment. Website should be updated regularly. Price of the models should be mentioned. Message Board could be provided where staff and visitors can post messages. Corporate reports and review of the company should be made available for visitors Visitor feedback form asking questions about the website and their suggestions should be added. Subscriptions to mailing lists and calendar of new range launches should be available. Home page should be made more specific by clearly mentioning the product offered. Conclusion: Internet Marketing has revolutionised the concept of marketing in a real way. Because of its advantages it is being incorporated even by companies which earlier believed in the traditional media of marketing. It could boost up the profits of an organisation in a big way, although it is a low cost media. The web site has to be properly designed and should harmonise the efforts of other media as well. If a customer is satisfied with the services that are provided to him, he would come back again. Such satisfied customers help a company in a positive image and be successful in this fiercely competitive business world. Bibliography: Baker Bob, "Poor Richard's Branding Yourself Online: How to Use the Internet to Become a Celebrity or Expert in Your Field." Campbell June, "How to Write Business Plans, Nightcats Multimedia Productions Claiborne Scottie, Copyright 2003 by Right Click Web Services. Fling Sharon [Online] ,"How To Promote Your Local Business On the Internet" Hiroki Tanahashi, [online] Rok Hrastnik,[Online] 'Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS Kanuk Schiffman, Consumer Behaviour Kotler Philip, Marketing Management, P 444 Kyle Bobette [online] Lake Laura .< http://marketing.about.com/cs/internetstrategy/a/aanetmarketinga.htm> Mills Valerie [ Online] http://v.mills.home.att.net 1994 to 2006-05-21 Parr Doug,< http://www.smallbiz2000.com> Thackson Karon [Online] < http://www.MarketingWords.com> This entry was posted on Saturday, March 18th, 2006 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses SootleDir Weblog is maintained by Darren McLaughlin Read More