Page 298 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

284 9 Marketing and Advertising in E-Commerce

Choose-Your-Own-Ad Format that displayed its products on a white background was aston-
ished to find that this display might not appeal to customers
AdSelector is a format created in 2010, which lets viewers in some countries where a blue background is preferred.
choose their own ads. The AdSelector allows consumers to If a company aims at the global market where there are
select what ads they like to view within the video clips (they millions of potential customers, it must make an effort to
are presented with two or three options). This model has localize its Web pages. This may not be a simple task because
been in use mostly for online videos with Hulu leadership. of the following factors:
Users like this option and, according to research, are twice as
likely to click on an ad. Recently the video content streaming
service Hulu.com began using a similar system that allows
viewers to select the commercial they would like to watch • Many countries do business in English, but the Eng-
before beginning a program (Hulu LLC 2015). lish used may differ in terminology, spelling, and
culture (e.g., United States versus United Kingdom
Live Web Events for Advertising versus Australia).
• Without a proper translation program, accented
Live Web events (concerts, shows, interviews, debates, web- characters cannot be converted to English and other
casts, videos), if done properly, can generate tremendous languages. Thus, the translation may be inaccurate.
public excitement and drive massive traffic to a website. If text includes an accented character, the accent
Some of the best practices for successful live Web events are: will disappear when converted into English, which
may result in an incorrect translation.
• Carefully planning content, audiences, interactivity lev- • Hard-coded text and fonts cannot be changed, so
els, and schedules they will stay in their original format in the trans-
• Including as much rich media as possible lated material.
• Conducting appropriate promotions via e-mails, social • Graphics and icons look different to viewers in dif-
media sites, and streaming media, as well as conducting ferent countries. For example, a U.S. mailbox resem-
proper offline and online advertisements bles a European trash can.
• Preparing for quality delivery • When translating into Asian languages, and so
• Analyzing audience feedback so that improvements can forth, significant cultural issues must be addressed;
be made for example, how to address older adults in a cultur-
ally correct manner.
A global event can allow a product to debut in different • Date formats that are written as mm/dd/yy (e.g.,
locations. June 8, 2016) in the United States are written as dd/
Note: Web-based seminars, often called webinars, are mm/yy (e.g., 8 June 2016) in many other countries.
becoming more popular to promote more knowledge- intensive Therefore, “6/8” would have two meanings (June 8
products. or August 6), depending on the location of the
writer.
• Consistency in document translation in several dif-
Localization in Advertising ferent documents can be very difficult to achieve.

The reach of Internet marketing is quite broad. An ad may be
viewed around the world. This is an advantage, but could
also be a drawback because culture differences may cause Developing an Online Advertising Plan
different interpretations of the same message in different
communities. Hence, localization of ad messages is an Advertising online is a competitive necessity for most busi-
important consideration for advertisers. nesses these days. With so many different media and adver-
Localization in EC refers to the transformation and adap- tising methods available, a challenge is to develop an
tation of Web content media products and advertising materi- effective advertising plan within budget constraints. A life
als to fit the Web environment of a certain region or country. cycle process composed of six steps to build and maintain an
It is usually done following a set of international guidelines. advertising plan is illustrated in Figure 9.6.
An important aspect is that of language localization. Web
page translation (see lionbridge.com) is just one aspect of 1. Determine the goal of the advertising project: The
localization. However, several other aspects, such as culture, goal needs to be specific—is it for gaining brand aware-
are also important. For example, a U.S. jewelry manufacturer ness, traffic to the website, or higher revenue?