Today we discussed the consumer interface of a website. This was very helpful for our 7 C’s group project. Prof. Wymbs went to the iVillage website and asked us what we remembered the most about it. In doing this, we were able to tell what the website’s strengths and weaknesses were.
The 7 C’s consist of the following: Context, content (offering mix appeal mix multimedia mix, content type), community, customization, communication, connection and commerce.
In order for a company’s site to be effective to the consumer, all of the C’s in mind when building the website.
The character of the Internet has changed from techy people place to people of all ages and levels of technical capability. It has taken a more mainstream quality. The internet has also experienced an explosion of consumer-created Internet content, especially with younger Internet users. This includes content on blogs and other social networking sites. Marketers now have a larger population to cater to. The rapidity of overall growth and the shifting nature of high-growth geographic area, demographic characteristics, and use behaviors will change the way marketers take advantage of the internet.
Consumer interactions data is monitoring consumer interaction on the sire. It is used to understand customer needs. For example, Cisco systems monitors when systems engineers interact with each other on the Cisco site to try and help each other fix problems. This gives Cisco a set of forums that they can monitor to understand customer problems and solutions.
Internet-based marketing research includes both quantitative and qualitative research done on the web. Examples are online questionnaires and surveys. There are also panels on the Internet where panel members become “professional respondents” and must continue to provide data to the firms. Qualitative data includes personal interviews and focus groups.
Online data capture is data captured as a result of Internet activities by consumers and marketers. Two basic types of online data are usage data and transaction history. The two ways in which the data can be captured are by the site itself or by third-party data suppliers (independent infomediaries who are not part of either the buying or selling side of the transaction). Examples of this are transactions that consumers may make on certain websites and the company keeps a list of all the items you have bought, when you bought them, how you paid for them, etc. Consumer interactions data like response to an e-mail campaign, has achieved great importance.
What is meant by permission marketing? Do you think it is an important concept to email marketers?
Permission marketing relates to spam. In order not to be considered a spammer, the marketer must obtain permission from the customer or prospect before sending e-mail. There are four levels of permission: Opt-Out:email addresses collected registration forms. to not receive further communications consumers need to take some sorrt of action in order not to receive further communications.
Opt-In:visitors have actively chosen to receive further communications, usually by checking a box on a registration form.
Double Opt-In: visitors agree to receive further communications, probably by checking an opt-in box on a site, and are then sent an email asking them to confirm their consent by replying to the email.
Confirmed Opt-In:visitors actively acquiesces to receiving email, probably by checking a box. they then are sent a follow up email confirming the permission.
Think about email communications from marketers, perhaps some that you receive yourself. What makes them interesting and worth your time to open and read? Do you ever take any action as a result of the emails? Why or why not?
E-mail that I receive are interesting because sometimes they include offers that appeal to me. I can be thinking about making a purchase, but don’t really know if I should or if I truly want to, and then I get an email with an “exclusive offer”. This encourages me to go for the purchase. If I feel like an e-mail keeps looking the same, I will usually ignore it.
Context: Site’s layout and design
Content: Text, pictures, sound and video that webpages contain
Community: The ways sites enable user-to-user communication
Customization: Site’s ability to self-tailor to different users or to allow users to personalize the site
Communication: The ways sites enable site-to-user communication or two-way communication
Connection: Degree site is linked to other sites
Commerce: Site’s capabilities to enable commercial transactions