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ARCHIVE 1999

 

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Roberto Dondi
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 DMLR*Newsletter - Since 1997  
No.18 issue -Feb. 1999   
  • Figures & tips of the month
  • Primo Website Award 1998
  • Website communication efficiency (theory)
  • Website communication efficiency (practice)

Articles  
  1. Figures & tips of the month.
    On this chapter I register some figures that are important to describe big and little rules and advices, big and little facts and happenings, linked to marketing over the Internet.
    - 966% is the 1998 shares growth in value of Amazon, Internet's leading books, cds, videos, etc. retailer.
    - 30% the further predicted fall of Internet firms shares (source: www.economist.com).
    - 10percentoffamazon.com is the domain name purchased by Buy.com to defeat the competitor Amazon.com in the retailing market of books, music, videos. The power of concept!
    - 135.51 ad banners are viewed by the average web user for the week of Nov.29-Dec.5, 1998, clicking on 1.15 of those banners (.85% click rate); according to data from NetRatings.
    - 2m US$ HotJobs.com spent to produce and run a 30-seconds ad on the first-time Super Bowl (50% of its 1998 revenue). Other Internet site freshman Super Bowl advertiser was VictoriaSecret.com. It promoted a fashion show to be broadcast live on the Internet (from www.usatoday.com).
    - 35.13 US$ the average CPM (cost per thousand) advertisers are paying to reach consumers on-line (id.).
    - 1.5% is the percentage of people are accessing sites from Italy, according to eStats. 
     
  2. Primo Website Award 1998. 

  3. Best DMLR selected Top*Four of the year is the Repubblica website (www.repubblica.it). Winner as "the best website in supplying simultaneously wide original contents with both easy browsing and towards user leaning".
    Top 5 preferences (global score)
    1º classified: repubblica.it (12.80 points)
    2º classified: randomhouse.com
         ex aequo: alessi.it (12.55)
    4º classified: shopping24.de (11.85)
    5º classified: acnielsen.com (11.80)
    Top preference (flow score)
    1º classified: alessi.it (4.60)
    Top preference (swap score)
    1º classified: repubblica.it (4.60)
    Top preference (information score)
    1º classified: alessi.it
         ex aequo: shopper.com (4.85)
    Know details of selected websites on the Primo Award.
     

  4. Website communication efficiency (theory). 

  5. The ranking of websites selected by DMLR through 1998, has been setting up from an evaluating method suggested to me by the reading of a "Micro&Macro Marketing" article, April 1998 (written by Tiziano Vescovi). There it was measured -as corporate communication efficiency- the business website presence over the Internet, on the basis of three factors: Flow easiness (F), Swap level (S), Informative content (I). Each of these factors is in turn the resulting effect of primary factors to which is given an importance rate (pointed into brackets) influencing the website visitors satisfaction:
    F = website Appeal (.4) + visiting easiness (.6)
    S = Interactivity level (.6) + leaning towards Customer/Segment (.4)
    I = advertising coordinate Image (.3) + Added value (.7).
    To the six elements of efficiency has been then voted a score from 1 to 5 -poor / excellent- allowing to give whole or intermediate values (i.e. 3.0 or 3.5).
    The cost dimension for the website visitor, due to charges of connection time occurred to visit, has not been considered as absolute efficiency factor to don't penalize the most structured sites or a web-server not easy to be reach during the computer session. However the time spent for visiting has taken relative importance in giving the (F) score.
     

  6. Website communication efficiency (practice).
    Flow easiness (F). A great website appeal is often the reverse of visiting easiness, when the adopting of umpteen snapshots or a screen-large image slows the download of the page. Graphics can create some confusion in understanding the organisation of the site (map helps sometimes to get easily to the bottom). Furthermore the on-frame structured sites are often poor in creating instant brand image. A content oriented website pays something in lacking of website appeal, but should never do so in granting visit easiness to users. The best DMLR top-sites in flow performance are resulted three companies usually running marketing oriented to consumers (Alessi, Randomhouse, Zegna). One of them adopts a black&white appealing background. They have picked up 4.0 points and over vs. a potential best score of 5.0, balancing everywhere brand image strengths and easy-to-browse plus.
    Swap level (S). The interactivity is usually associated with merchant websites seeking to know more about prospects and customers. FAQ, request or email form, contact-us pages, online survey seem tipically to be the means to build up this priviliged relationship to visitors. The same attention doesn't deserve the merchant to the segment/client in terms of providing option or entry keys instead of random visiting path. Product lines are still the main key to access the different areas of the website, secondly the languages when the audience's international. Interacting the web users by life style is becoming the right approach of trendy firms. Searching function placed onto the main page is qualifying a website as very oriented to web user needs. The surprise could be the on-line supplying of samples, documents, excerpts to exchange information for free. Six websites have reached 4.0+ points in their swap performance: Repubblica, Excite, Randomhouse, ACNielsen, PubsGroup, Love4OneAnother. Their common purpose? To get acquainted with a loyal customer, don't matter it be a news reader or a simple Web surfer, a books shopper or music fan or entrepreneur!
    Informative content (I). The advertising coordinate image allows the company to integrate its printed or broadcasted campaign to the on-line medium. An advanced communication culture of management makes up a global approach to different media. Nothing to do with the added value of informing the visitors by means of a website rich content. Often the two assets aren't an item. Best buying offer or stores location for merchant sites and links to wide on-line resources for informative ones, are exemplifying two typical ways to. 13 out of 44 tested websites get relevant performance on informative content (4.0+). The matter is already clear: adding through the website free, more than ever detailed information on company, staff, brand, product, trade to better deal with and/or reward the Net customer. Three sites reach the excellence in doing it (Alessi, Shopper, Repubblica) -only a little 0.15/0.30 under 5.0 points!

  7. *** DMLR message *** 

  8. DMLR, the sole marketing review in Italian/English, free and without sponsoring, is looking for web sites to join by a link exchange program. If you have web space to host ad banner on your site, we could become advertisers without wasting money. Read now details and terms on DMLR's joint links.  
Copyright 1999 - All rights reserved (except where indicated). 
Roberto Dondi- marketing consultant.
Member of A.P.C.O. (www.apcoitalia.it). 
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Home Version
Here Italian text

Internet course: follow step 1 to 4!

1->Questions & Answers

2->Marketing Resources

3->Link & Banner

4->Articles, Tracks, News

©1997-2000 DMLR / Roberto Dondi.
Issued on: [Feb. 9, 1999]