A Guide to Successfully Increasing Consumer Engagement Through the use of Interactive Ads:

Lockenby & Li (2000) define interactive advertising as the presentation and promotion of products, services and ideas by an identified sponsor through mediated means, involving mutual interaction between consumers and marketers.

The use of interactive ads is a great way for businesses to engage with consumers directly. Interactive marketing as a whole and the use of interactive ads is key to enhancing word of mouth and creating stronger and more memorable connection between consumer and brand. Businesses provide consumers with the opportunity not just to watch, but click, swipe and interact with their marketing material. This creates an avenue for brands to get personal in ways they haven’t been able to do before.

According to a study generated by Dynamic Logic MarketNorms, consumers who were exposed to interactive ads felt more favourably towards the brand than when exposed to a non-interactive ad, and intent to purchase was 2.9% higher (Denham, 2004).

 

5-Step Template to successfully delivering your interactive ad: (Lake, 2018)

 

  1. Assess Marketing Communication Opportunities:
    • To whom is your message going out to?
    • Market segmentation, tailoring your interactive ad to specific groups.
  2. Determine Your Objectives:
    • Your objectives must be clearly stated, measurable, and appropriate to the phase of market development.
  3. Develop Your Promotional Message and Budget:
    • Focus on the content, appeal, structure, format, and source of the message.
    • Unique design process to drive consumer engagement.
    • Determine the total promotional budget.
  1. What Communication Channels Will You Use?
    • Select which social media platform/s best serves your interactive ad the best.
  2. Determine Campaign Effectiveness:
    • Establish and measure Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
    • Key KPIs for Interactive ad campaign: volume of traffic to website, total number of social media interactions, total amount of sales after the launch of the interactive ad campaign.

4 Great Examples of Interactive Ads:

Volkswagen: Print Ad Test Drive

Reebok: Pump 2.0 Speed Cam

BMW: 360° VR Commercial ft. Gigi Hadid by 360º Viral Media

Mountain Dew: The Professor Presents: #GotHandles Trailer

The above are great examples of interaction with a brand. Merging oneself with a brand and being a part of it.

Key to the ascertaining interactive advertisement success is ensuring your marketing material tells a story around the product in question enticing consumers to engage and interact with the advert presented. This is evident within the examples provided above with some brands going the extra mile with their adverts being aided by the use of celebrity endorsements. However, Denham (2004) argues “the message of the ad should be clearly visible without any interaction on the part of the users, because there is no guarantee that someone will always have the time or inclination to use the interactive features.”

 

‘Pull’ Marketing Strategy:

Interactive advertisement is a function of a ‘Pull’ marketing strategy, whereby brands can effectively generate a wide audience interest with the objective of ‘pulling’ customers in. Other common sales tactics include word of mouth referrals and mass media promotions. From a brand perspective, pull marketing endeavours to generate brand loyalty and ultimately seeks to retain customers (Gibson, 2018).

Source: 2060Digital

(Source: 2060Digital)

 

Drawbacks of Interactive Ads:

Marchionini (1995) highlighted several limitations: a) It requires a high attentional demand on users, b) users have to manage with information overload, c) it offers plenty of opportunities for distraction through information that is tangential to one’s goal. Novinson (2017) further stresses that businesses can lose control over their advertisement, and thereby damage the reputation of their brand. This can occur when the advert is misrepresented, offending users, or where individuals use the advert for the wrong reasons. Further drawbacks that marketers must consider are the human and financial resources required, and the difficulty of measuring your return on investment (ROI) if no key performance indicators (KPIs) are introduced prior to execution (Bull, 2016).

 

Measuring the Success of your Interactive Ad:

A key indicator to measuring the success of an interactive ad would be through social media activity, calculating the number of views, shares, likes etc. determining the volume of consumer engagement.

As you can see from the screenshot below Volkswagen’s interactive ad has received over 200,000 views on YouTube:

VW

(Source: YouTube)

Another indicator to measuring the success of your interactive ad is through conversion and goal tracking via Google Analytics. This process requires you to setup and customize your preferred monitoring strategy, but can easily present the path of your customer from ad interaction to making a purchase on your website.

Your interactive marketing attempts should be integrated with a measurement strategy to provide you with better visibility through data and facilitation of content delivery that could generate the maximum number of high quality leads.

 

Conclusion:

The traditional approach to content advertising has served marketers well, implicitly assuming unidirectional communication whereby advertising is something the marketer does to the consumer. In contrast, interactive advertising disputes that what the marketer does to the consumer is a limited aspect of advertising, demonstrating the need to recognise what consumers do to advertising. Interactive marketing has become the forefront of successful marketing campaigns in today’s relationship driven world (Paylou, et al. 2015)

 

References:

Bull, R. 2016. “The Pros and Cons of Interactive Content” [Online] https://www.hallaminternet.com/pros-cons-interactive-content/ [Accessed 22nd March 2018]

Denham, M. 2018. “Interactive ads more effective at building awareness” [Online] https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/interactive-ads-effective-building-awareness/199184 [Accessed 28th March 2018]

Gibson, J. 2017. “Push pull marketing strategies” [Online] http://marketing-made-simple.com/push-pull-marketing-strategies/ [Accessed 21st March 2018]

Google, 2018. “Google Analytics Solutions” [Online] https://www.google.com/analytics/#?modal_active=none [Accessed 20th March 2018]

Holoubek, C. 2016. “The Push-Pull Thoery: How Digital Marketing Elements All Work Together” [Online] https://2060digital.com/blog/push-pull-theory-digital-marketing-elements-work-together/ [Accessed 22nd March 2018]

Lake, L. 2018. “Steps to Planning a Successful Promotional Campaign” [Online] https://www.thebalance.com/steps-successful-promotion-campaign-2295836 [Accessed 18th March 2018]

Li, H., & Leckenby, J. (2004). Internet advertising formats and effectiveness. Center for Interactive Advertising. http://www.ciadvertising.org/studies/reports/measurement/ad_format_print.pdf

Marchionini, G. (1995). Information seeking in electronic environments. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Novinson, E. 2017. “Advantages & Disadvantages of Interactive Marketing”. [Online] https://bizfluent.com/info-8165647-advantages-disadvantages-interactive-marketing.html [Accessed 24th March 2018]

Pavlou, Paul A.; Stewart, David W. (2000-09-01). “Measuring the Effects and Effectiveness of Interactive Advertising”. Journal of Interactive Advertising. 1 (1): 61–77.

 

How to Successfully Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a Key Digital Marketing Strategy, Used to Maximise Internet Visibility.

Chaffey et al. (2004) has described Internet marketing as the application of the Internet and related digital technologies to achieve marketing objectives. These marketing objectives can be fulfilled through the effective use of SEO.

 

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization and marketing is a set of processes widely used on websites to improve search engine rankings which generate quality web traffic and increase return on investment (ROI).

Utilizing an SEO strategy is down to the purchasing behaviours of consumers, who communicate their purchasing needs through the use of search engines (predominantly Google, who has a search engine market share of 75%) often resulting in the purchasing of products and services (Batista, 2008). Businesses are quickly recognising the importance of SEO becoming a key source for customer acquisition. (Olbrich and Schultz, 2008), that’s why search engines are considered to be one of the most dynamic digital marketing tools (Olbrich and Schultz, 2008; Barnes, 2007).

 

SEO brings high-value results as user intent is high: WANT > SEARCH > GET INFO > BUY.

(Postan, 2017)

(Postan, 2017)

6 Key Components of SEO, Essential for Increasing Rank Placement on Search Engines:

 

According to Forbes (2012) there are 6 key areas of SEO that need to be considered to successfully maximise a websites Internet visibility. These are as follows:

  1. Keywords:
  • When constructing, or updating your website, the use of SEO and keywords is fundamental to being discovered organically online. You do have the option to pay for higher-ranking placement (Google Ad words – as evidenced below) on search engine results, however this can be costly and must be regularly maintained.
(Google, 2018)

(Google, 2018)

  • Keywords are the specific phrase which is driving traffic to your specific website URL. Understanding what users are searching for when discovering your website in a search engine will be crucial to developing a successful SEO strategy. Keyword research is the initial step undertaken to achieve SEO success and can be commenced by useful online tools such as SEMrush that will help identify keywords for your website and allows you to snoop on the competition.
  • It is important to note that some keywords may appear too competitive to gain a credible online ranking, such as “short-tail keyword” phrases, i.e. Make money online. However, you can overcome this hurdle by using “long-tail keyword” phrases, i.e. How to make money blogging. This method is considered more profitable, as it will drive more targeted traffic due to a smaller number of competitors using that phrase in search engines.
  1. Meta Tags:
  • Try using your selected keyword within the title of your page. By default, this title will also be the title shown in the search engine results (i.e. meta titles). In addition you can also write a description for users to see when they access your website in search engines (i.e. meta description).
  • Meta tags play a key role in SEO optimization.
  1. Content:
  • Search engines have stated that creating quality content is the best way to not only rank for keywords, but also create positive user experiences. Creating an online presence through the use of informative content will help boost user traffic that will increase potential sales.
  • The content on your website should be organised in a clear logical way. This is not only good for SEO, but it also helps visitors navigate your website finding other relatable content.
  1. Backlinks:
  • Backlinks is a link a website gets from another. Backlinks make a huge impact on a websites prominence in search engine results. This is why they are considered very useful for improving a websites SEO ranking.
  • Try creating graphics or newsworthy content that will influence others to link your content.
  1. Social Media:
  • Websites must take advantage of the potential exposure a strong social media presence can achieve, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Social media platforms are essential to sending search engines signals of influence and authority and thus increasing potential ROI.
  1. Product Images:
  • Optimizing your images for search engines by selecting your preferred keyword in the file name is essential to increasing the possibility of consumers discovering your content.

 

Check out Maile Ohye’s video below for additional help with optimizing your brand online:

How to measure SEO success?

Traffic:

  • How many users visited your site through organic search results. This provides a good indication whether SEO has placed your content high in search engine rankings. This will also identify your keyword performance and whether your selected keyword is proving successful compared to your competitors. Google analytics can be used to measure keyword usage and website traffic. With Google Analytics, you can track ROI for your online marketing (Google Analytics, 2018).

Engagement:

  • Engagement can be measured by the time users spend on your site, the bounce rate or even the shares, likes and comments received across your social media platforms.

 

Following these key areas of SEO improvement will aid your business growth in the initial stages of development. It will allow consumers to discover your new brand, and will help you gain a foothold in your chosen market.

 

References:

Agrawal, H. 2018. “The Importance of Keywords in SEO: A Beginner’s Guide” [Online] https://www.shoutmeloud.com/importance-of-keyword-for-search-engine-optimization-seo.html [Accessed 20th February 2018]

Barnes, T. (2007). “RSS: Marketing newest communication channel”. Journal of Website Promotion 1, 4, 15-30.

Batista, H. (2008). “Techniques for growing small search engine marketing firms”. Search Engine Marketing Journal, Vol. 1.

Chaffey, D. (2004). E-Business and E-commerce Management, Second Edition.

Forbes, 2012. “The 6 Basic Components Of A Strong SEO Strategy For Online Retailers” [Online] https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2012/08/03/the-6-basic-components-of-a-strong-seo-strategy-for-online-retailers/#5d36b80eea53 [Accessed 20th February 2018]

Google, 2018. “Google Analytics Solutions” [Online] https://www.google.com/analytics/#?modal_active=none [Accessed 20th February 2018]

Olbrich, R. and Schultz, C. (2008). Search engine marketing and click fraud. Research Paper No.5. FernUniversität, Hagen.

Postan, L.R, 2017. “What Is SEO’s Role in the Digital Marketing World?” [Online] https://www.searchenginejournal.com/outbrain-seo-quiz/210008/ [Accessed 20th February 2018]

semrush, 2018. “All-in-one Marketing Toolkit” [Online] https://www.semrush.com [Accessed 20th February 2018]

 

 

The Importance of Social Media Marketing within the Health & Fitness Sector for Increasing Consumer Engagement

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing (SMM) is a marketing tool that utilizes the Internet and social media networking platforms. The primary objective of using SMM is to generate content that users will share with their social network to aid a company’s expansion of their customer reach and to increase brand exposure (L. Vries et al, 2012).

Chaffey et al. (2003) has described Internet marketing as the application of the Internet and related digital technologies to achieve marketing objectives. These marketing objectives can be fulfilled through the use of social media networks. It is therefore important for marketers to ensure social media platforms are suited to their marketing objectives. A good marketing objective enables marketers to obtain new customers whilst retaining existing customers (Nick Hajli, M, 2014).

 

Why should businesses use Social Media Marketing?

Using social media is important to businesses wanting to establish a B2C relationship, creating an interaction between the business and the customer on a personal level. There are multiple motives as to why a business decides to use SMM; it can be used to build or establish a brand, build sales, increase their customer reach and can be used to effectively cut costs of existing marketing strategies (L. Vries et al, 2012).

The general availability of the Internet has given individuals the opportunity to use social media, from email to Twitter and Facebook, and to interact without the need for physical meetings (Gruzd et al. 2011).

 

The Health & Fitness Industry

According to a report produced by Leisure DB, the UK Health and Fitness industry has continued to grow. The growth experienced is predominantly driven from the private sector. There are now over 9.7 million fitness members in the UK that has supported the all-time high penetration rate of 14.9% (Leisure DB, 2017)

(Source: Leisure DB, 2017)

(Source: Leisure DB, 2017)

Due to the expansion within the industry it’s important for businesses within the market to implement a successful digital marketing strategy to align with their audiences interests and to attract new customers.

 

How can Health & Fitness businesses effectively use Social Media Marketing?

Through Consumer Engagement:

One of the primary objectives of using social media marketing is to increase consumer engagement. According to Huffington Post (2017) Facebook is ranked as the best social media channel for business marketing with more than 1.59 billion users. Facebook comprises the largest balance of demographics of any social platform that can be utilized to engage your audience with fitness-orientated marketing.

“It provides an extraordinary medium for your business to connect with your prospective customers all around the world. And from an advertising perspective, it’s the easiest to manage and allows for the best possible targeting.”

 (Sachs, J. 2017)

 Interacting directly to your audience through the use of a designated Q&A page can be used by people seeking advice with workout and nutrition related questions. This is an effective method of increasing audience engagement. You also could include direct links to your website, along with additional contact information.

 

Brand Hashtags:

Consider a brand hashtag as your social media signature. It should be a relevant slogan you include when sharing content, and it’s important that your hashtag is unique to your business. It allows users to let the social community know what they think about your company’s products and services (Keyhole, 2017).

Benefits of using the hashtag:

  • By creating a discussion around your business/brand you’re able to encourage the social community to learn more about the products and services you have available. In addition, consumers will follow links you share, promoting your business further.
  • People using the hashtag will draw attention to their posts, potentially increasing the amount of followers (Keyhole, 2017).

Below is an example of how Bulk Powders effectively use their hashtag #DOMINATELIFE to engage with the social community:

(Source: bulk powders.co.uk, 2018)

(Source: bulk powders.co.uk, 2018)

 

(Source: Twitter, @Ranthonyfjoshua)

(Source: Twitter, @Ranthonyfjoshua)

 

(Source: Twitter, @eatlivefit)

(Source: Twitter, @eatlivefit)

 

Demonstrate your process:

A YouTube channel can be used as an effective fitness-marketing tool. You have the ability to visually demonstrate your workout processes and offer nutrition guidance to your audience, whether that is to existing clients or prospective clients.

Below is a short video of Tom Coleman demonstrating an arm workout through Bulk Powders YouTube channel.

Make Your Move – Tom Coleman | Arm Workout | BULK POWDERS®

With consent, you could even post hands on training with existing client. You could even publish before and after footage to document successful transformations. Utilizing this tool will help persuade people that they too can achieve their fitness goals (Sachs, J. 2017).

 

Conclusion:

For businesses within the Health & Fitness sector it is key that they integrate social media marketing into their marketing strategy. Social media and the Internet offer small and large businesses new and unique opportunities to engage with their audience and to increase their customer reach whilst learning about their existing customers in real time.

Conversely, there are implications that need to be considered. Social networks are an uncontrolled setting where businesses do not have control. It will require a robust social media strategy to manage comments posted by consumers whether positive or negative.

 

References:

Chaffey, D. (2004). E-Business and E-commerce Management, Second Edition.

Bronner, F. & de Hoog, R. (2010) Consumer-generated versus marketer-generated websites in consumer decision making. International Journal o f Market Research, 52, 2, p. 231.

Gruzd, A., Wellman, B. Sc Takhteyev, Y. (2011) Imagining Twitter as an imagined community. American Behavioral Scientist, 55, 10, pp. 1294-1318.

Gummesson, E., (2002). Total Relationship Marketing, Marketing Management, Relationship strategy and CRM Approaches for the Network Economy, Second Edition. Butterworth-Heinemann publications.

Qualman, E. (2011). SocialNomics, How social media transforms the way we live and do business.

Keyhole. (2017). 5 Valuable Hashtag Marketing Strategies Proven to Engage Audiences. Available: http://keyhole.co/blog/5-valuable-hashtag-marketing-strategies-proven-to-engage-audiences/. Last accessed 23/12/2017

Leisure DB. (2017). UK Fitness Members. Available: http://www.leisuredb.com/blog/2017/8/9/september-gym-owner-monthly-stk3m-t5n72. Last accessed 23/12/2017

Vries, S. Gensler, P. Leeflang, (2012). Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media Marketing. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26, 83-91.

Nick Hajli, M. (2014) A study of the impact of social media on consumers. International Journal of Market Research, 56, 2.

Rouse, M. (2011). Social media marketing. Available: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media-marketing-SMM. Last accessed 23/12/2017

Sachs, J. (2017). The 7 Best Social Media Channels for Business Marketing. Available: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/young-entrepreneur-council/the-10-best-social-media_b_11654820.html. Last accessed 23/12/2017

Sparks, A. (2016). The Role of Social Media in Your Fitness Marketing Efforts. Available: http://www.responsemine.com/role-social-media-fitness-marketing-efforts/. Last accessed 23/12/2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Success or Failure?: How can you tell what makes a successful website?

The Internet has become a great tool for buying and selling products and services, sharing files, entertainment, and communicating much like I’m doing presenting my blog to you guys!

(Cisco News, 2015)

(Cisco News, 2015)

Whether you’re a large multinational corporation or a small business owner selling products and services locally, having an Internet presence needs to be top of your agenda!! Here’s why:

  • As of early 2017 a Global digital overview report from We Are Social and Hootsuite revealed that more than half of the worlds population now use the Internet.
  • According to Cahill, H (2017) UK retailers raked in £133bn online last year as the Internet’s importance for the retail industry continued to grow.
  • Research from IMRG and Capgemini shows that shoppers spent £18bn more online in 2016 than they did the year before, a growth of 16 per cent.
  • Establishing an online presence through the use of a functioning website is a great way to generating additional revenue and profit for your business.
  • An annual survey by analytics firm comScore and UPS found that consumers are now buying more things online than in store.

Taking the above into consideration it is more critical than ever that firms establish a strong online presence through the use of a website delivering the optimal exposure needed to be a winner in a rapidly changing market place.

 

So what makes a successful website?

Diem, C. (2017) suggest there are 7 key elements to building a successful website 5 of which I think are the most important:

 

  1. Visually Pleasing:

It is essential to engage visitors immediately to your website and it is key that your online presence reflects the essence of your business.

Digital designer Maria Withers, who designed the Austin & Locke website, believes that design trends are temporary but keeping up-to-date with them is essential when devising a website. (Laurence, 2014)

“Your design should focus around your user’s needs, if a website isn’t aesthetically pleasing or intuitive your website can become redundant and users will bounce from your web page.”

Diem, C. (2017) suggests that a website should remain simple to the eye and not to be cluttered with text and images as visitors don’t want to be sifting through all that information to get to what they need: use your white space. However, if images are to be used its worth investing in professional photographs if you want a professional looking website.

As an example, check out the John Lewis website, whose online sales purchases peaked at 705 units per minute on Black Friday!!! https://www.johnlewis.com

 

  1. A Homepage with a Clear Message:

You need to draw the potential customer into the website and this is probably your one opportunity to tell them what you want them to know. It is a bit like the 30 second to 2 minute elevator pitch when you’re trying to sell your big idea to the head of the company.

These are the questions you’ve got to answer: Who are you? What do you do? What benefit/value do you offer?

It is important that you give your website visitors the information they need to stay on your website in the quickest possible time.

An uncluttered website will aid the delivery of that key information.

 

  1. A Clear-Call-to-Action:

The website should steer the visitor to what you want them to do next. For example, do you want them to make a product purchase? Do you want them to subscribe?

“A clear CTA that will guide your reader: Call Me, Shop Now, Contact Us, Let’s Chat, Sign Up, Buy Now.” 

A call-to-action is essential when converting website visitors into customers. Websites will often provide flags to visitors to prompt them in the direction required. E.g. John Lewis’ use of “Price Match” banner, used to entice the visitor into making a purchase.

(John Lewis, 2017)

(John Lewis, 2017)

 

  1. Search Engine Optimization is essential:

(Telnic Limited. 2009) have concluded that search engine optimization is the most effective way to identify your website to potential visitors when they enter keywords and phrases into the search engine, improving user traffic to your website.

The best way to up your SEO is to make sure your content and images are all aligned with the keywords, metadata, and H1 and H2 tags on your site. The use of H1 and H2 tags enable a word search on a typical search engine (E.g. Google, Bing) to identify your website and the relevant product page to a potential customer.

Each page of your website should have a keyword focus that supports the content for that particular page. (E.g. Christmas Shop, electrical, television, fragrances etc.)

(John Lewis, 2017)

(John Lewis, 2017)

 

  1. Search Indexing:

This is the final piece of the ‘successful website’ puzzle. Once your website is live it is vital that you submit your website to any search engine to be indexed. If you don’t inform the search engine of your existence it will make it much more difficult for them to find you.

According to Anderson, S. (2017) the most popular search engine in the UK is Google, with around 90% of the market share. Indexing your website through Google and other popular search engines is one of the most effective ways of directing web traffic to your website.

To increase your exposure and web traffic learn how to submit your website to popular search engines!

 

Check out the following YouTube video below for website builder software to help kick start your business venture!

 

Having a poorly designed website is like having a really bad shop window: you have the best goods in town but no one wants to come in. In other words you’ll have a really high bounce rate (Google.com, 2017). On the flip side, a well designed website with high usability has been found to positively influence visitor retention (revisit rates) and purchasing behavior (Avouris, Tselios, Fidas, & Papachristos, 2003; Flavián et al., 2006; Lee & Kozar, 2012).

 

 

 

References:

Anderson, S. (2017). How To Submit A Site To Search Engines Like Google, Bing & Yahoo. Available: https://www.hobo-web.co.uk/how-to-submit-a-site-to-search-engines-seo-how-to-tuesday-2/. Last accessed 26/11/2017

Avouris Nikolaos, Tselios Nikolaos, Fidas Christos, Papachristos Eleftherios. Advances in Informatics. Springer; 2003. Website evaluation: A usability-based perspective; pp. 217–231.

Cahill, H. (2017). Shoppers spent £133bn online last year, but the internet is hitting margins. Available: http://www.cityam.com/257242/shoppers-spent-133bn-online-last-year-but-internet-hitting. Last accessed 25/11/2017

Diem, C. (2017). 7 Key Elements of a Successful Website. Available: http://blog.breezyhillmarketing.com/7-key-elements-of-a-successful-website/. Last accessed 25/11/2017.

Farber, M. (2016). Consumers Are Now Doing Most of Their Shopping Online. Available: http://fortune.com/2016/06/08/online-shopping-increases/. Last accessed 25/11/2017.

Flavián Carlos, Guinalíu Miguel, Gurrea Raquel. The role played by perceived usability, satisfaction and consumer trust on website loyalty. Information & Management. 2006;43(1):1–14.

Google.com. Bounce Rate. Analyrics Help. (2017) Available: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009409?hl=en. Last accessed 25/11/2017

Laurence, N. (2014). How to create a successful website that keeps customers returning. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2014/aug/04/how-to-create-successful-a-website. Last accessed 26/11/2017

Lee Younghwa, Kozar Kenneth A. Understanding of website usability: Specifying and measuring constructs and their relationships. Decision Support Systems. 2012;52(2):450–463.

Petre Marian, Minocha Shailey, Roberts Dave. Usability beyond the website: an empirically-grounded e-commerce evaluation instrument for the total customer experience. Behaviour & Information Technology. 2006;25(2):189–203.

Don Q: Website Review

 

Home

Don Q is a Puerto Rican rum, distilled, manufactured, bottled, and distributed by Destilería Serrallés from its corporate facility in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Don Q is the top-selling rum in Puerto Rico, where over 70% of the rum consumed in the United States is produced.

The main purpose of Don Q’s website is brand wielding looking to achieve an increase in brand recognition as well as providing a clear marketing tool for their product. The primary function of a website is to convey relevant clear content which Don Q successfully achieves with an array of relevant product information. This is a necessary requirement to achieving functional convenience as stated by Valacich, D et al. He also states that these convenient characteristics help the consumer’s interaction with the website interface. (Valacich, J.S., Parboteeah, D.V. and Wells, J.D., 2007, pp.84-90)

The site itself is aesthetically pleasing with the inclusion of vibrant, high resolution, professionally taken photographs of the products, in turn engaging the reader whilst demonstrating the true quality of the product. The colour scheme is consistent on all pages on the website meeting the representational delight as referred to by Valacich, D et al. In addition, the use of interface consistency and graphic design influence consumer perceptions. . (Valacich, J.S., Parboteeah, D.V. and Wells, J.D., 2007, pp.84-90)

The website provides the consumer with an insight into the sustainability and quality reassurances of the product. This illustrates that the organisation is focused on delivering a product that meets the demands and expectations of environmentally conscious consumers.

The use of online PR activities i.e. advertisement in the online Wall Street journal is key to promotional value. This can be found in “The Shaker” outlet of the website which provides updates and news regarding the product. The layout for the particular area is clear and well defined and often informal. In addition, the use of the “Recipes” category provides the organisation with the necessary tool to engage and interact with the consumer, presenting a number of alternative cocktail concoctions enhancing their consumer experience inciting the consumer to purchase products. “Consumers visit sites not only to search for products/services, but also to have rich, entertaining experiences. These goals or objectives determine what type of tasks the consumer performs on at a site.”

The inclusion of “Where to buy” provides avenues for product distribution which looks to pinpoint your current location before locating a supplier within your vicinity inciting a future purchase.

One area of improvement would be to separate the header navigation bar to make the sub categories more prominent for easier visual use. This is a relatively simple rectification which can be completed to further enhance the website interface.

IKEA’s Listening Hub

IKEA introduced a new inititiave called the Listening Hub which sought to increase customer engagement. The IKEA Digital team worked together with The Socalizers and Brandwatch Viza to ultimately provide IKEA with a suitable platform to effectively reach out to their customer base. They were able to collate data from global conversations about the brand using a number of social media outlets. Brandwatch Viza managed the analytics technology platform that provided IKEA with the necessary tools to follow conversations and to conduct topic analysis, which ultimately allowed the company to gain valuable insight into their customer’s perception of IKEA’s brand. Data that was collected via the Listening Hub is readily distributed to relevant departments for actioning.

Reasons as to why IKEA undertook this notable change:

  • Customer complaints do not provide a positive representation of the organisation.
  • Identifying problem areas can be used to amend strategies, ensuring the customer experience is improved.
  • The multinational group can now identify customer complaints by region in real time.

IKEA has undertook steps towards becoming a truly intelligent business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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