IP: Technophile: Marketing on the WEB from the Wharton online

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

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Technophile: Marketing on the WEB


By now, the fact that thousands of companies are rushing to
establish a presence on the World Wide Web is old news. But what
exactly possessed all these smart people to blindly rush into
such a new area, when they haven't the slightest clue what they
want out of it? Setting up a Web site costs money, and companies
are spending it like they never heard of the words "Net Present
Value." Some actually pause long enough to mumble something like
"Everybody else is doing it, so it must be important. Guess we'd
better do it too." Rational, well thought-out reasons for
investing in Web development are few and far between.


Such a large flow of ignorant money was just begging for someone
to turn some of it into consulting fees. Almost since the day
the Web was born, there have been countless mini-firms and
freelance programmers offering to develop Web sites for a fee,
and such firms are still a dime a dozen. But what was absent,
and is still quite rare, was the kind of firm a company could
turn to and say "We would like a Web presence that fits our
corporate image and marketing strategy." Most Web developers
still think marketing is one of those things lesser people do
instead of making a real living by programming.


On the other hand, marketing consulting firms and advertising
agencies typically lack the technical expertise to set up a Web
site for a client. From the very beginning, a market gap existed
for firms that could span the two worlds and provide a
combination of marketing, advertising and development services
for companies wanting to join the Web. One of the few firms that
has emerged to fill this gap is Inters=8E Corporation
(http://www.interse.com) , a Sunnyvale, CA based firm that
"delivers products and services enabling progressive
organizations to effectively market their companies, products
and services on the Internet." By carefully balancing the
marketing and technical aspects of Web development, the people
at Inters=8E have managed to create a convincing image as a bridge
between the two worlds.


Inters=8E has succeeded because it targets marketing professionals
in organizations that want a Web site. By being able to speak
the same language and offer solutions in terms of marketing
needs, Inters=8E can distinguish itself from the myriad Web
developers that churn out Web sites en masse. However, their
marketing expertise is backed up by graphic designers and
technical professionals, so that they can offer complete
implementations to their clients. The founders at Inters=8E were
able to accomplish this by carefully selecting the mix of people
they hired when they started the firm. They themselves came from
both creative and technical backgrounds, so the firm has had a
balanced mix of talents from the very beginning.


"We differentiate ourselves by having multi-disciplinary
people," says Midori Chan, co-founder and VP Marketing of
Inters=8E. "We can do better than companies' in-house systems and
marketing people, since in most companies those different
disciplines don't necessary work well together." In large
corporations these departments typically have their own
subcultures, and tend not to communicate very well. In contrast,
the small, intense environment of a consulting firm is much more
conducive to building rapport between the various experts, and
it is this synergy that allows small, creative firms such as
Inters=8E to offer better solutions more quickly than anything
most companies could provide for themselves.


Surprisingly absent from both the companies' and the
consultants' perspectives are any thoughts about what kinds of
people they will be reaching on the Web. Various demographic
surveys of the Web indicate that, although it is no longer
dominated by young, white male technical professionals and
students, this group still makes up a disproportionate part of
its users, especially since they tend to spend more time on the
Web than other users. While recent surveys estimate the
proportion of female users at 20% and climbing rapidly, it will
be a while before the Web audience becomes more representative
of the general population, and it will always have some biases.
Some of these, such as the high average income of users, are not
exactly drawbacks, but others, such as the bias against people
uncomfortable with technology, render the Web less suitable as a
marketing channel for many companies.


One of the reasons people avoid the issue of characterizing Web
users is that it's so difficult to do. Nearly every site tracks
the number of "hits" (individual file requests) it receives,
although this is universally acknowledged as a very inaccurate
measure of usage. More sophisticated systems such as Inters=8E's
can tell you exactly how many users and even where they're from,
but there is no easy way of knowing who or even what kind of
person is on the other end of the computer. It could be a
high-income, high-spending yuppie, or it could be a twelve-year
old using daddy's computer to surf the Web. The simple fact that
10,000 people accessed your Web site this week tells you little
about how many potential customers you have reached.


This brings us back to the fact that the Web is still very new
and there are many unknowns, which has become almost a clich.
The Web has, however, proven to be a great equalizer. There are
no economies of scale on the Web. Spending more money will not
buy a company greater exposure, nor will it guarantee a better
site. Even giants like AT&T and Ford become just another link on
a page, and in fact most large corporate sites are nowhere near
as attractive and well-done as many small-company and even
individual home pages. Content and creativity are the deciding
factors in the success of a Web site, and nobody has even come
close to mastering the new medium.


Whether this will always be the case is open to debate. It could
be that a market will develop for the best Web agencies, and
only the largest corporations will be able to afford them.
Perhaps the on-line services such as America On-line and the
Microsoft Network will grow to the point where they eclipse the
World-Wide Web, and the organized corporate version of
cyberspace will predominate. Other, less decisive alternatives
may emerge, and the borders between the networks are already
blurring. Whether enough of the current chaos will survive to
continue to provide a fertile ground for small, creative
companies remains to be seen. But in the current environment,
they are flourishing, and many of the entrepreneurs behind them
are saying there's plenty of room for more.


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