Thinking Australia’s Internet Management Newsletter takes a look at issues that go beyond the web page. If you would like to subscribe or unsubscribe see the instructions at the end of the important information that follows.

IN THIS ISSUE
1. Internet Brand Protection
1.1 Warning One
1.2 Warning Two
1.3 Copyright Issues
1.4 Privacy Policy
2. Traffic Building
2.1 The new media model
3. Audience Management
3.1 Women. They’re here.
3.2 A dynamic web needs a dynamic publishing model
4. Brand Experiences
4.1 Internet users are customers as well
4.2 New accessibility guidelines that affect you
5. Offer of the Month

1. Internet brand protection
1.1 Warning One, for those who are not internet companies.
This issue of ThinkTank begins with a warning sounded out by Andrew Grove, Chairman of Intel, the world’s largest maker of computer chips: “In five years, there won’t be any internet companies because they will all be internet companies. Otherwise they will die.”

1.2 Warning two, for those who are. If you do have a website - congratulations. You are now a publisher, the same as a Kerry Packer or Rupert Murdoch. And along with that comes all the responsibilities and all the risks associated with managing a publishing model. As we’ve observed time and time again, when it comes to producing traditional promotional materials - television, radio, printed matter - the approval process goes through a defined procedure.

With publishing on the internet, it’s a different story. It appears to be left to those who know a little about “that kind of stuff” but may not know about corporate policy on what should be released and what is out of date. This can leave many corporations open to serious risk and attack. What are the risks of internet publishing? Because the internet is a fluid medium that can easily be changed from day to day, are you keeping a record of every change? If you were attacked by an individual or pressure group for material that was on your site a month ago, would you have a record of the exact material that was “live” on a particular day?

As a publisher, appropriate Corporate Governance will require you to archive all published materials. Unless this is happening, you could be attacked for purported or actual information published and you have no way of verifying what content was on your site on a particular day.

1.3 Copyright Issues
We’ve noticed that many web developers are presenting themselves as the copyright owners of the site. (You can normally tell by looking at the bottom of the home page.) And many clients are allowing this to happen. It may not appear much to be concerned about on the surface.

However, if your relationship with your developer should deteriorate or your developer’s assets are frozen for whatever reason, it may be difficult for you to access the material you invested much of your marketing funds into.

1.4 Privacy Policy
Both Microsoft and IBM are seriously addressing consumer privacy issues. IBM has written to many of the sites on which it advertises and asked for them to comply with a clear, accessible Privacy Policy.

IBM will remove its advertising from sites that fail to comply. A Privacy Policy is a statement that openly discloses how any personal information collected on the site is being used. We’ve noticed from a number of sites Thinking manages, that the Privacy Policy page has its fair share of traffic - normally, more than the Contact Details page.

A Privacy Policy Wizard that can help you construct your own is available at http://www.truste.org

2. Traffic Building
2.1 The new media model
For years, businesses have had a working model they have used to communicate with their customers. Imagine the traditional model as a globe. Your brand sits in the middle of the globe. On the outside of that globe are windows that represent media nodes such as television programs, radio, newspapers, magazines, direct mail etc.

Our customers stand on the outside, looking in. We spin the globe to the windows our customers are looking at and then shoot our message through. In traditional media, we find our customers. In the new media, as the internet is, the model is turned on its head. Imagine the same globe.

This time, it is covered with products, news, items of interest, brands and the type of information that populates the internet. In this model, the customer observes and puts in a request. If their interests are say travel or new cars, they type this into their selection and the globe spins and places their search selection in front of them.

If your brand is not in this consideration set, then you may be non-existent to your customers. The new media changes the way we communicate with our audiences. It’s no longer about a message coming out of a screen, it’s now about a request going into a screen. In the new media, your customers find you. And the best way they find you is through search engines.

If you don’t appear highly listed here, you will not be in your customer’s consideration set. Recent Forrester Research provides the answer. It found that search engines such as Yahoo and AltaVista were the first place most people started their search. (Remember this is an evaluative medium, therefore traditional media would have played its part by creating awareness for your product or category. Now, customers are in search of more information.) Nearly 60% of internet users found websites through search engines.

This method proved to be around twice as effective as traditional promotional activity. Search engines are eight times more effective than banner ads and outperform, by a ratio of 2:1, all traffic driven to a site via traditional media exposure. Forrester Research has completed a survey on the most likely way that people find websites.

Their results show that 57% of websites are found through search engines, 38% of people find them through emails, 35% through other or related websites, 28% by word of mouth, banner ads account for only 9% while TV ads lead to only 14% of traffic.

3. Audience Management
3.1 Women. They’re here.
Since its inception, the internet has been a male domain. This has been of concern to many mass marketers. After all, around 80% of purchasing decisions are either controlled or influenced by females. They are a major focus of any consumer brand promotion.

This highly prized audience is now tuning into the internet. As reported by Web Site Journal (9 June, 99), “Women accounted for 55% of all online commerce in the fourth quarter last year … Well over half of today’s new internet accounts are being snapped up by women.” Before you talk to this growing audience, it’s worth noting how they use the medium: “Designing a site with women in mind,” continues the article, “has nothing to do with setting your background colour to pink.

Women go online to accomplish tasks quickly … For the most part, they are unimpressed with web designers’ bells and whistles.” Like most people, women are not going “shopping” on the web, they’re going “searching” and anything that gets in the way or makes it difficult, is a negative experience. Look at the successful web brands such as Yahoo, Amazon, Comsec and ninemsn.

They did not build their brands on rich media experiences, but on rich, timely information that’s easily accessible. As someone told me many years ago, “be clear before clever.” On the internet, the business model to the mass market consumer is based on giving attention, rather than getting attention.

3.2 A dynamic web, needs a dynamic publishing model
Unlike a printed brochure, your internet site is dynamic, even if it has one link on it. According to Web Site Journal, and based on over 50,000 sites, the average number of links on a page is 21.3. And four out of every ten pages of a site have a broken link. T

his means on average, your customer has a 40% chance of having a bad experience with your brand. Would you allow this to happen within your office, store, or call centre?

4. Brand Experiences
4.1 Internet users are customers as well
It seems that many businesses are looking at the internet and expecting a flood of eCommerce. However, they’re not providing many of the assurances and articles of trust required by customers.

An amalgamation of 245 consumer watchdog groups recently conducted an 11 country study on the experience of purchasing online. Some of the amazing statistics they found are: only 53% of websites have policies on returning goods, only 32% had any mechanism for consumer complaints if anything went wrong, 67% of potential purchases on the internet are abandoned due to a lack of real time online customer support.

The study found that customers are particularly worried about delivery, returns and product specific information. If these are not clearly stated on the site, then why should you be trusted. There’s more to selling than sales. One major distinguishing feature of the more successful stores is not merely price, its service. The internet customer is no different.

4.2 Accessibility.
Are you open to all people on the internet? The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has just released a Web Accessibility Initiative Standard. According to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission, websites that don’t conform to the standards expressed and approved, can be seen to be acting in a discriminating manner to people with disabilities.

Complying to the specifications will prove to be very difficult for sites designed around a framed structure. It is well worth getting your site checked for compliance.

The report can be found at: http://www.w3.org/

5. Offer of the Month
Thinking Internet Management Services can attend to all of the issues covered in this newsletter. If you would like to have a more thorough understanding of your internet stature, your brand’s online share of voice and the audience experience you currently have, please contact Thinking.

See you soon.

THINK MAIL is Thinking Australia’s Internet Management Newsletter. It is compiled and written by Mark Bergin and Joe Di Stefano.

For further information contact Thinking Australia.

Thinking’s mission is to help our clients establish, develop and maintain successful internet brands. We help them complete the transition from mere internet presence of their brand to the more important phase of internet brand management which covers the management of their “voice”, “experience” and “audience”.

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