Page 204 - Electronic Commerce

Marketing on the Web

After years of being barraged by television and radio commercials, many people have
developed a resistance to the messages conveyed in mass media. The impact on an audience of
the shouted expression “New and improved!” is very low. The overuse of superlatives has
caused many people to distrust or ignore much mass media. Television remote controls have
mute buttons and make channel surfing easy for a reason. Attempts to re-create mass media
advertising on the Web are likely to fail for the same reasons—many people ignore or resist 179
messages that lack content of any specific personal interest to them.
Mass media advertising campaigns that are successful often rely on the passive nature
of the media consumption experience. People watching television or listening to radio are
usually in a passive and receptive state of mind. Thus, advertisers can include messages in
mass media advertising that recipients might not consider valid or convincing if they were
actively evaluating those statements. The messages are accepted by recipients because
they are in a nonquestioning and passive state of mind. In contrast, Web users are actively
engaged in the medium, with hands on the keyboard or touchscreen, as they view Web
pages. This active state of mind makes Web users far more likely to evaluate critically the
advertising messages they see and less likely to accept the content of those messages in
the same passive way that television viewers accept the content of television commercials.
The level of complexity inherent in the product or service is also an important factor
in media choice. Products that have few characteristics or that are easy to understand can
be promoted well using mass media. Because mass media is expensive to produce, most
companies use it to deliver short messages (although there are exceptions, such as
infomercials). Highly complex products and services are best promoted through personal
contact, which allows the potential customer to ask clarifying questions during the
promotional presentation.
The Web occupies a wide middle ground and can be used for delivering short but
focused messages that promote, but it can also be used to deliver longer and more
complex messages. The Web can even be used to engage the potential customer in a back-
and-forth dialog similar to that used in personal contact selling. Most important, a
properly designed Web site can give potential customers the ability to choose their level of
interaction. A company can present a mass media type of message that a site visitor can
click to access a more detailed message. If the visitor still wants more information, the
site can offer the opportunity for interactive communication (such as an online chat) with
a customer service representative. Thus, the Web can offer elements of mass media
messaging, personal contact interaction, and anything in between.
Companies can use the Web to capture some of the benefits of personal contact, yet avoid
some of the costs inherent in that approach. One way to do this is to use some of the new
communication tools that the Internet provides. For example, people can post their thoughts
on a Web site and invite others to add commentary. Individuals have used this type of Web site,
known as a Web log or blog, as an outlet for expressing their political, religious, and other
strongly felt beliefs. Today, many companies use blogs as a communication device. For
example, retailers use blogs to give their online stores a personality and provide customers
with a reason to visit their Web sites even if they are not shopping.
In Chapter 1, you learned about social commerce, and in the introduction to this chapter,
you saw how companies are starting to use storytelling techniques to tie their branding themes
into a consistent set of messages across all media channels they use to communicate with

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