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E-commerce to
Reach 25% by 2008
At the recent Invision Conference
the message came across loud and clear -- the World Wide Web,
just in its infancy, is changing how business is being conducted.
From the consumer's perspective the "shop from home"
ease it provides simplifies their lives and affords them more
time for things they enjoy -- instead of necessities of shopping.
Kids and adults alike are drawn
to it's "fun' interactive elements. And whether you're looking
for the history of King Tut, or information on a business competitor,
the Web's ability to save time and provide access to more information
is a phenomenon of the century. But, it's benefits don't stop
there. cyber-marketing, e-commerce and other interactive media
provide huge opportunities to cyber-savvy entrepreneurs and executives.
You may be surprised at how fast
industry experts are predicting a huge shift to "e-commerce"
-- and how it will change your life and business. The Invision
conference conducted by New Media Magazine brought techno-savvy
developers together with techno-savvy marketers for an interesting
"vision" into the new millennium.
Current market research, says
Mike Braun, Head of IBM's PC Division, indicates that up to
25% of on-line homes will have broadband capability by the year
2002. Let me translate... broadband means cable modems and other
high-speed transmission devices that allow fast delivery of large
files like audio, video, and graphics & animation intensive
web pages. Today's environment is a challenge to the creative
types since much focus has to be on keeping files small and loading
fast so consumers will use and respond via the web.
The average on-line user now
purchases 5.5 items on-line. 50% of those spent $500 or more,
with the average now at $750 per year per user.... some pretty
significant profit opportunities for those focused on capturing
them! And, it's estimated that 25% of all consumer spending will
be on-line by the year 2008. That's not long to transform ones'
thinking, reposition ones' company, and learn the "how-to's"
of capturing the potential of this vastly different medium.
"Compelling media experiences"
Braun says, are key to success in interactive media. Interactive
media involves and engages the user like no other medium available.
But, the success of user involvement in marketing communications
has been long-known and well capitalized upon by many marketers
with whom you are probably quite familiar. You know those sweepstakes
offers -- the ones where you have to find the sticker of the
red car and put it on the blue mail-back card. Then you have
to find the stamp that says "Free" and place it next
to your car sticker. These types of offers have involved their
audience via more traditional print media for years. And they've
had great success for years.
Effective interactive marketing
via the Web or CD absolutely doesn't mean taking your same old
print materials and plopping them on the Web.
Cyber-marketers must become non-linier
thinkers. They must study and embrace "interactive"
communications. They must understand how to create an "experience"
for their audience -- instead of simply providing information.
And that means "eye candy" say the experts.
Living in a visually sophisticated
world where 100 million dollar movies are nearly totally driven
by video special effects has it's rewards and poses it's challenges
to not-so-well-capitalized smaller companies. You'll invest more
on your production on the front end to get some fun and engaging
eye candy of your own. And eye candy does get stale after a while
-- just like the real stuff. So keeping your production "fresh"
and fun will be a challenge. But, say the experts, eye candy
does deliver bottom line results, so it's worth the extra investment.
Just keep in mind, an interactive
multimedia "brochure' says Presentation Magazine,
will keep a prospect looking at your material for an average
of 20 minutes, and 20% of them will spend 30 minutes or more.
Compare that with the 2-3 minutes given to traditional "print"
brochures and you'll recognize the selling power of interactive
media. Broadening our thinking to include other electronic delivery
systems like CD ROMs and DVD (digital video disk), and interactive
marketing communications provides even more horsepower and can
effectively conquer many marketing challenges that the Web alone
can't address.
CD ROMs deliver design-intensive,
heavily interactive, and media loaded (lots of audio & video)
applications at speeds considerably faster than even today's
fastest Web access. Will these "physical" media become
obsolete when the "bandwidth" is broadened? "No"
say experts. No more than the automobile became obsolete when
airplanes were invented. There is and will continue to be an
ongoing need for many methods of transportation into digital,
interactive marketing. The jury is still out as to whether greater
bandwidth will actually deliver greater throughput or whether
the added capacity will simply be taken up by more traffic.
"Being locked into one interactive
delivery medium can easily lock you out of profitable marketing
opportunities" was the overwhelming message coming from
this new media savvy group.
New media, digital marketing,
e-commerce, interactive communications, multimedia -- all these
terms and technologies are here to stay. Whether they become
a profit or problem is up to you.
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