• A new definition of place
• delivering traffic to the site
• the new Domain names

the strategy of holding certain names
• Canadian Internet Registration Authority

• Domain Name" legal issues
• Domain Name Registration Scheme - or Scam
• Domain Name disputes

• Mass Selling
• Advertising [paid promotional activities]
• Publicity [non-paid promotional activities]
• Personal Selling
• Sales account executives selling products/services to business
• Sales Promotion
• brand managers working with retailers to merchandise the product
• contests, coupons, reward programs

• Informing 
• Persuading 
• Reminding 

To be successful in attracting traffic, using a good domain name and brand building, you need to be more effective at hearing what the customer wants.

WTGR

fundamentals
of marketing
in the
context of
E-commerce

and,,

Marketing
your web
site itself

 - the different terms explained  promotion, selling, advertising, publicity, sales promotion 
  from MRK Chpt 14
The purpose of reviewing some of these points is to facilitate discussions on the fundamentals of e-commerce promotion

- discuss on-line article by Jared Spool about good points and bad points of trying to create an emotional bond with customers by using pictures of people using their products. This article was suggested by Phil Nicholls.

In Hanson's book "Internet Marketing" we talked about Chpt 5 in the section on Web Business models but it is worth re-visiting that chapter for the intro section that also discusses Online Brand Building (p. 127)

• Brand Recognition
• Brand Preference
• Brand Loyalty
• Brand Insistence

• The Key Elements of Branding
• differentiation
• relevance - the degree to which the product can be seen by the customer as having usefulness
• perceived value
• Emotional Branding vs. Rational Branding
• Other Web Branding Strategies

Siegel cautions that in the "customer-led future, company brands will weaken significantly because companies will be pulled apart by their customer divisions, they should plan on restructuring and promoting product or even division brands"

well, in several cases, this is indeed already true among several consumer product companies. Toyota promotes the Lexus brand as a distinct luxury brand to disassociate itself from the mass market low price appeal of the average Toyota line-up
WTGR

The purpose of the video was

• to solicit discussion of some of the key personal characteristics which allow a person to "conduct E-commerce successfully" [from the official title of the course IEC 802]
• understand some of the environmental circumstances that allowed Amazon.com to create a successful brand out of nowhere
• opportunity
• timing
• growth of related technologies
• original idea
• to see how the success of the brand allows Amazon.com to get involved in other business areas apart from its core competency.
• Amazon's toy business, recently merged with the online ventures of 

Toys R Us
• Amazon.com claims that up to one-third of its 23 million customers are not yet aware of the company's latest offerings, such as home improvement, toys and cooking,
• look at an example of the dot.com business model that does not turn a profit, and how they can continue to "get away with it"

On Amazon.com's own web site is a bio of Jeff Bezos, which can augment some of the information you would have seen in the beginning of the video.
 www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/misc/bio-bezos.html/107-0666044-7561336

.

Let's look at what the irreverent people at the Motley Fool.com site have to say about the future directions of Bezos and Amazon.com

 http://www.fool.com/news/2000/amzn001009.htm

In an October 2000 article on Fool.com, staff writers suggested
"Is Amazon Overgrown? "

"Amazon.com was criticized last week [Oct 2000]  for over-expanding its product offerings. Today, Amazon's Chairman and Chief  Executive Officer Jeff Bezos answered the charges, and said his company intends to expand into many more product categories."

"In an interview with Reuters, [Oct 2000] Amazon's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos said: "We will continue to do deals like the photo deal and we'll also continue to enter new product categories." "This model works," continued Bezos. "Selection is an advantage, not a  disadvantage." He went on the say that he was sure his company would be profitable eventually, but wouldn't disclose when that might actually occur."

Brian Lund, Co-manager of the Rule Breaker Portfolio 
" Amazon has gotten itself in trouble in the past through diversifying into new product categories. Part of the problem was that they got into categories that they didn't fully understand, causing inventory inefficiencies in departments like toys and electronics, which wreaked  havoc on their working capital management. Another problem is that some of the categories didn't fit Amazon's medium very well. It's just not easy to sell table saws profitably on the Internet.".

Paul Commins, Rule Breaker Portfolio Writer 
"Amazon has become the ultimate risky stock bet. Now featuring a negative book value and junk-bond class debt, Amazon has never been closer to not making it."
 

On January 31, 2001, one of the biggest stories in the online media community was the news that Amazon.com would lay off a large number of people. E-commerce Times had a good article which explains the situation

"The Amazon Question: Will Investors Trade Growth for Profits?"
by Keith Regan
 www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/printer/7138

"News that Amazon.com is slashing 1,300 jobs continued to  rattle the e-commerce world  Wednesday, as analysts said reduced sales forecasts from the  bellweather company are a signal that the era of spectacular growth may have ended for the e-tail sector.  Amazon chief executive officer  Jeff Bezos and other executives blamed a cooling U.S. economy for the slowing sales. However, analysts said the more likely  culprit is the company's core business in books, music and videos, which has matured to a  point where earlier growth rates are no longer possible."

Read the humorous, and inciteful article by Sean Carton 
titled "An Open Letter to Jeff Bezos "
 http://clickz.com/print.jsp?article=2354

"Hello! Earth to Bezos! What the hell are you doing? 

You've built a great company based on the premise that stellar service, a great brand experience, and judicious application of your users' information can make an incredible site that millions of us can't do without. In a world where commodity-based dot-coms die out faster than gnats around a bug-light, you've figured out how to stand out from the crowd, sell kajillions of books, and inspire customer loyalty just this side of fanaticism. 

And you did it all by creating a system that gathers some basic preference information from us, puts it together with information about our basic shopping habits, and then combines it with the behavior of all other users in order to help us loyal customers find new products that consistently delight and inform us. You've even taken the rarely heard customer's voice  and incorporated it into the site, allowing customers to see what other people like and don't like in order to make better buying decisions. The result? The dot-com poster-child that the  rest of us mere mortals can only aspire to. 

And now you're throwing it all away."

Carton's ponts are based on the fact that Amazon.com made a point of collecting info from the customer to allow them to to better satisfy customer interests during repeat visits to the site - yet the good will created by that might be lost of Amazon goes ahead and starts sharing that private profile info with othe Amazon.com group member companies.

"Amazon.com's two controversial software patents - one of which he's used to sue his main competitor, Barnesandnoble.com. Nor did he mention the latest  patent, issued only days ago for collaborative filtering, a method of sorting millions of customer  preferences electronically to help new customers choose products and services. 
This third patent has been called by CNET news sources the kind of development that could "spell trouble for dozens of e-commerce sites that use similar technology to recommend books, videos or  other products to customers." .

the authors discuss

• a brief introduction to the concept of brand building
• the value of a strong brand to the producer
• the value of a strong brand to the consumer
• brands and trustworthiness
• brand equity
• global brands
• the benefits of two-way branding
• the increase in the interest in the individualism of communication (which could also fit in the CRM - Customer Relationship Management section of IEC)

Feb
6th
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Feb
6th

the authors discuss web segmentation

 

.

why segment? because most people believe that when they put text and images up on their web site, they are therefore communicating with everybody in the globe - this is not true. There should be a specific effort to target the material to a demographic which best fits your "perfect customer profile". You should do "target market segmentation" online just as you would do it offline in a traditional marketing situation. WTGR

• Lindstrom and Andersen say (page 138) that 
"If a precise target group can be defined, it is likely that a personal dialogue with the users can be achived. This corresponds to a traditional dialogue where the fewer participants, the better the interaction and identification"
• segementation of the users on the Internet
• Lindstrom and Andersen say (page 139) that one of the overlooked potentials is the ability to invite viewers to a site to browse through, after selecting a route based on age and gender - this simple segementation can make a big difference for companies in the areas of some products such as clothing and entertainment - yet few sites do this.
• strategic considerations regarding brand attitude
• development of the brand platform
• the four key brand elements
• role
• what is the purpose
• how can it help consumers
• what role will the brand have in the consumer's life
• personality
• what is the look and feel of the brand
• what personality would the brand have if you described it as a real-life friend
• achievement
• how is the brand differentiating from competitors
• what unique benefits does the brand offer consumers, compared to the competition
• brand backup
• what background, history or inventors prove the brand is clearly is trustworthy
• web brand building
• measurement of the communication value of the web site
• Lindstrom and Andersen say (page 172) that 

"to date, the most frequently used quantitative measurement of a website's success has been the number of hits... these figures tell us nothing about the actual quality of the website. At a pinch they tell us something about how good the company has been at creating traffic... the quantitative goals should be based on a number of measurable parameters which can describe the quality of the communication on the website  ... goals should be set for
• the number of repeat visits
• the number of minutes the visitor spends per page
• the number of minutes the visitor spends on the website's main activities
• the user's behaviour at the website
• which links/images are clicked on in what order
• does this match what the layout intended
• the number of emails received
• the website's turnover and income

Internet Ad Types What types of Internet ads are there and which kinds work best? by Bruce Morris

Morris describes the different types of online advertising - of which online ads are just one component
The article "different types of ads" can be found at
 www.webdevelopersjournal.com/columns/types_of_ads.html
this article is one of several in a series.
The 5 part series by Morris is titled

• Personalisation
• Are banner ads going the way of buggy whips?
• What are the problems for going forward?
• What types of ads are there and which kinds work best? (the one we are referring to here)
• How do I get some of this for my site? 

• "Regular Old" Banner Ads
• Rich Media Banner Ads
• Mailing Lists & Newsletters
• Sponsorships
• Interstials
• Keyword Advertising
• Coupon Deals
• Pay Per Click or Pay Per Sale
• Remainder Programs & Ad Auctions

Susan Stellin writing in the New York Times as carried in the Toronto Star 26Dec2000 "Like it or not, Web ads gain currency"

This article, which was carried in The Star Dec 26th, 2000, discussed interstitial ads.
interstitial is a term used in medicine to describe something between the cells, or between the layers. In online advertising, this term interstitial ads has been coined to describe those ads that pop up in your browser window as you proceed to see a new page - the ad stays there blocking the other material until you close it which is annoying - but effective since you have to notice or you can't see the other material.

Susan Stellin writes that even of we don't like this, companies will still do it because it seems to be effective. Stellin quotes a number of people in the article that talk about there various experients running interstitial ads and the main point seems to be that you have to focus these on a particular segement and the content within the interstitial ads has to be pretty kewl otherwise people just find it annoying.

By Kevin Featherly, Newsbytes,  14 Dec 2000, "Web Ads To Make Content Sites Profitable By 2005 - Forrester"  www.newsbytes.com/news/00/159427.html

Featherly notes that "... Dot-com news, music and entertainments sites have been laying people...a new report by market analysis firm Forrester Research predicts that if such companies can hang on for just two more years, profitability will arrive. And the oldest media revenue source - advertising - once again will step in as the savior."

Feathjerly quotes Forrester media analyst Eric Scheirer
"it's very difficult for sites that are advertising-based to be profitable today. But that's changing, and very rapidly"

"Says Scheirer, as advertisers continue flocking to the Web to get the word out about their products, they will be forced to compete for many of the same "super-target" online content pages - search-query returns on Yahoo and the shopping-bot results on the MySimon.com site are two examples. But not all advertisers will be able to schedule ad appearances on those pages, nor will they wish to pay the high price those ad slots will fetch, according to the Forrester report.  Instead, the study says, the trickling will begin. Just below the "super-target" site grade  lies what Scheirer labels "premium" site pages, well-contextualized pages of content designed to work with targeted ads"

"There is no doubt, the analyst says, that the current picture is bleak, and that many online publishers could be convinced to throw in the towel now....But patience will bear fruit, the analyst insists."

Banner Advertising Statistics  "Measuring the Effectiveness of Online Campaigns" by Charlie Morris

This article is in five parts: 
 www.webdevelopersjournal.com/articles/banner_ads/banner_advertising_statistics.html
                       1.Introduction 
                       2.Comparing Clickthrough Ratios 
                       3.Comparing Costs 
                       4.Comparing Conversion Rates 
                       5.Comparing Your Stats to the Averages 

 

.

Often what happens when people try a new technology or process is that they adopt it and hope it will be successful - without having any certain way to verify whether the particular innovation actually adds to the effectiveness of what they are trying to do. In considering new forms of advertising online - it is important to deal with the issue of measuring the effectiveness of the various new methods to be able to clearly verify what works and what doesn't - and, this verification should be done soon in the campaign so you don't waste millions of dollars on something that doesn't work..

Morris says "Online advertising is in fact an easy thing to measure and quantify. The Internet can provide a level of detail that no other medium can ever hope to. The online advertising business is a more mature one than many people realize, and the tools to measure the effectiveness of banner ad campaigns are there for those who know how to use them."

"Banner ads, as far as we're concerned, are sold by the page impression - each time a user views one Web page is counted as one impression. Prices are quoted in "CPM", a holdover from print ad days which means "cost per thousand". For example, if the CPM for a particular campaign is $20, then it would cost $2,000 for 100,000 impressions."

Morris explains "Banner ads yield two benefits. 

First, they may entice users to click on the banner and go to the advertiser's site. Each time this happens is called a "clickthrough", and the number of clickthroughs divided by the number of impressions is called the "clickthrough ratio" or "click rate". This is easy to measure, and provides a direct measurement of a banner's effectiveness.

The second benefit of ad banners is building brand recognition. Despite ad agency claims to the contrary, this is almost impossible to measure."

examples
 
 

Brand 
Building

examples

Feb
14th
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Feb
14th

• concentration of customers "It is extremely useful to own these communities as by their very presence the members provide a mass of relevant information which makes targeted marketing possible"
• "members' profiles tell a lot about their interests and needs - which is information companies can utilize in their communication and product development"

• Interest - there must be content which attracts participants and usually you plan your content based on the fact that this information cannot be obtained any other place
• Information - there must be volume of information indexed and searchable to cover every conceivable requirement so that participants will not be drawn outside the community to other sources
• Interaction - the ability to work interactively with the content helps create a sense of ownership among the participants. Ideally you want them to be contributors to the building of the community, not just people reading information posted on the pages.
• Communication - there must be structure to the pages on the site which allow for message to be left and answered and there must be clearly marked contact information for the hosts so participants can be in contact with the site builders. If the community involved testimonials about experiences with a product or service the people providing the testimonials should not be selected unless they agree to provide real emial addresses, and further agree to answer emails from the community
• Transactions - many communities are based on customers of a product who are very enthusiastic owners. These people are not content to own the product but they also want everybody else to know they own it - which is evidenced by the rise in North America and Europe of product brands in clothing eg. Ford trucks T-shirts, Nike wrist watches, Online communities are a great source for affiliated products and services in addition to the core product.

Eg. you wouldn't sell a Harley Davidson motorcycle on the Harley site, but you do have a selection of clothing and relatively inexpensive accessory items which you can buy.
 http://roadstore.harley-davidson.com

Snapple can also use the online site to gather specific name and address information of loyal customers which they will use in "direct mail" campaigns in ensure

At the I AM website,
 http://www.iam.ca/touts/iam.ghtml
people can get an email address such as joe@iam.ca or joe@onlycanadian.com or joe@canadianrocks.com 

The questionnaire which you fill out to get the free email includes the statement
"we are always trying to learn more about you and your interests in order to provide the best and relevant community for Canadian beer drinkers..."

Such customer profiling techniques were done by the American cigarette companies in the 1980's in order to develop long-term brand insistence - however it was expensive to do that then due to the amount of free merchandize you had to give away - "kewl" web sites allow this customer profiling to be less costly and you can create communities of customers that in turn create a dynamic that can be very exciting

The National Post picked up on this story of Molson and their I AM CANADIAN ad and accompanying web site and ran a story by Jonathon Gatehouse on the patriotic fervor created
 http://www.nationalpost.com/home.asp?f=000414/259024
 

incidentally, did you know beer.com was done by 

Transfer interrupted!

Feb
14th
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Feb
14th

If the name you want is already taken as a domain, think of a solution name that people can remember, such as www.earache.comif you're into noise.
 
 

Tom Siebel writing in his book Cyber Rules makes a particular point of explaining the importance of developing awareness of the URL/Domain name. Siebel says "the name of the game right now is not revenue, but exposure ... many internet experts say that the battles for name recognition will be won and lost over the next three years [1999-2002] because the greatest growth in the user base willoccur during this time as more and more customers turn to online buying" Therefore it is critical to "lock in" customer awareness of key words and phrases in order to build loyalty and catch the tip of the wave of the early momentum WTGR

In Chapter 4 of Siebel's book, there is an interesting section titled "Who owns your company's name" Siebel recounts the story of www.ringlingbrothers.com which Siebel says was in fact not originally owned by the circus but by an animal-rights activist organization PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who used it to condemn the mistreatment of circus elephants. Siebel notes that in 1998 acourt decision gave the name to Ringling Brothers, whereupon PETA moved to www.circuses.com. PETA itself was the victim of name appropriation says Siebel when somebody registered www.peta.org in 1996 to publicize their satire of "People Eating Tasty Animals". Network Solutions eventually ruled that neither he nor PETA could use it so the squatter formed the Domain Name Rights Coalition.

People making money selling domain names
 http://www.rmsmith.com/html/buy_rent_domain_names.htmleg. www.petme.com

Feb
14th

applies toChapter 10, page 356

NSI - Network Solutions Inc.
In the beginning, NSI was contracted by the U.S. government to assign domain addresses for .com, .net, .org etc. Europeans didn't like this and other regions protested as well. In June 1998 NSI's monopoly ceased. The company created a registration system which is shares with other companies.

The Globe's story (which came of the Reuter's wire) can be found at
 http://news.globetechnology.com/.....ResultStart%3D1%26ResultCount%3D10&

Essentially the situation is this:
"ICANN  (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) will begin taking applications from companies (called registrars) that plan to sell and register the new top-level domains... Applications will start in August 2000, and by the end of the year the registrars and their new "dot-somethings" will be chosen. After that, the   registrars will sell domain names -- which come before the dot -- to  the public."

Ross warns that "90,000 registered .ca domains have six weeks, beginning Sept 18th to re-register Canadian domain names with the new authorities, or risk deactivation". 

FYI newsbytes.com says that only 5,000 dot.ca names are effected
 www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/154211.html

additional information on the 5,000 effected
 www.newswire.ca/releases/August2000/24/c3139.html
ther figure 5,000 comes from the UBC dept. which was the original registrar of .ca names.

In the past, Canadians wanting to register a .ca name had (typically Canadian) a lot of rules and regulations. As a result, 80% of the registrations Canadians were taking out were going to the .com space - which is "money going out of the country" said the president of Tucosws (which also does registrations).

Feb
14th

the
"new"
names
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Domain 
Names

the
"new"
names

The Current Rules (from Bereskin and Parr's website)

"Under the current Canadian system, a company name is limited to one domain name
address per company (or two if the company name has both an English and a French form),
and the domain name address must relate either to the corporate name or to a trade mark  of a company.  It should be noted that while the policy was intended to only allow Canadian entities to  register .ca domain names, current practice allows foreign entities to register .ca domain  names (i.e. if they own a Canadian trade mark registration, or in some cases a pending  trade mark application, provided an active Canadian contact address can be provided). 

The Proposed Rules (from Bereskin and Parr's website)

"The proposed system will permit Canadian companies and Canadian individuals to register  as many domain names as they wish, and there will be no specific restrictions with respect to the granting of the domain names. The proposed rules will remove the essentially "one domain per organization" rule and introduce a "first-come first-served" system which will no  longer require evidence of entitlement to a proposed domain name (i.e. by providing proof  that the proposed domain name is a corporate/business name or a trade mark).  While the proposed rules explicitly restrict eligibility to Canadian parties (the rules state that "registrants must be Canadian citizens, residents, companies or other legal entities"), CIRA is considering a proposal from the Patent and Trademark Institute of Canada that would provide a two month transition period during which all owners of Canadian registered marks, ostensibly both Canadian and non-Canadian, would be able to register their marks as .ca domain names. It is suggested that during this period a "stop list" of Canadian trade mark registrations and official marks would be maintained so as to prevent any party but the  trade mark owner from registering them as .ca domain names. The stated purpose of the  proposed transition period would be to prevent cyber-squatters from obtaining domain names containing registered trade marks."

contact at CIRA is
James Hale, of  Ken Communications & Public 
Affairs,  jhale@kencommunications.com

"who is"

if your name is not available in .com, .net or .ca, then you can check it with other countries
 www.networksolutions.com/catalog/idnames/

+, if you do not want to be "found" in whois, you can registrar your domain name privately, this is used when people want to avoide dealing with cybersquatters
 www.networksolutions.com/catalog/idnames/p-reservation.html

Feb
14

Some examples of the names they were selling were
romantic.com
sensual.com
beautiful.com
sensitive.com
flu.com
scent.com
cleans.com
nails.com
etc.

read the press release from P&G's website about their domain name selloff
 

The sell off by P&G represents perhaps, a maturity in thinking about domain names - that being the understanding that people are not stupid when they search for information on the net; they don't type in flu.com and expect all the answers to be there. However, in the beginning of the gold rush to secure rights to domains, it was considered critical to "collect" all the ones relevant to your business.
WTGR

Interestingly, a Dr. Proctor, who spells his name slightly differently, owns the domain www.proctorandgamble.com and on his sight makes comment about how procterandgamble.com poached a large number of domain names many years ago - but they forgot about misspellings !!

For a very interesting perspective on P&G's collection of names, read the critique at
 http://www.proctorandgamble.com/pgurls.htm
by Dr.Peter H. Proctor