person with responsibility for Internet or new-media marketing, a communications
manager who places above-the-line advertising, and product managers who manage the
promotion of individual products and services. All of these people should have an input
in deciding on the process for updating the web site. This is not simply a matter of
updating the web site; there are more fundamental issues to consider, such as how com-
munications to the customer are made consistent between the different media. Some
companies such as Orange (www.orange.co.uk) and Ford (www.ford.co.uk) manage this
process well, and the content of the web site is always consistent with other media cam-
paigns in newspapers and on television. In Ford this has been achieved by breaking
down the barriers between traditional-media account managers and the Internet devel-
opment team, and both groups work closely together. In other organisations, a structure
is adopted in which there is a person or group responsible for customer communica-
tions, and they then ensure that the message conveyed by different functions such as
the web site developers and the advertisement placers is consistent. Options for structur-
ing an organisation to integrate new and old media are given in Parsons et al. (1996).
What, then, is this process? The process will basically specify responsibilities for different
aspects of site management and detail the sequence in which tasks occur for updating the
site. A typical update process is outlined in Figure 9.9. If we take a specific example we can
illustrate the need for a well-defined process. Imagine that a large organisation is launching
a new product, promotional literature is to be distributed to customers, the media are
already available, and the company wants to add information about this product to the
web site. A recently recruited graduate is charged with putting the information on the site.
How will this process actually occur? The following process stages need to occur:
1 Graduate reviews promotional literature and rewrites copy on a word processor and mod-
ifies graphical elements as appropriate for the web site. This is the writestage in Figure 9.9.
2 Product and/or marketing manager reviews the revised web-based copy. This is part of
the reviewstage in Figure 9.9.
3 Corporate communications manager reviews the copy for suitability. This is also part
of the reviewstage in Figure 9.9.
4 Legal adviser reviews copy. This is also part of the reviewstage in Figure 9.9.
5 Copy revised and corrected and then re-reviewed as necessary. This is the correctstage
in Figure 9.9.
6 Copy converted to web and then published. This will be performed by a technical
person such as a site developer, who will insert a new menu option to help users navi-
gate to the new product. This person will add the HTML formatting and then upload
the file using FTP to the test web site. This is the first publishstage in Figure 9.9.
7 The new copy on the site will be reviewed by the graduate for accuracy, and needs to be
tested on different web browsers and screen resolutions if it uses a graphical design differ-
ent from the standard site template. This type of technical testing will need to be carried
out by the webmaster. The new version could also be reviewed on the site by the commu-
nications manager or legal adviser at this point. This is part of the teststage in Figure 9.9.
8 Once all interested parties agree the new copy is suitable, the pages on the test web
site can be transferred to the live web site and are then available for customers to
view. This is the second publishstage in Figure 9.9.Note that, in this scenario, review of the copy at stages 2 to 4 happens before the copy
is actually put on to the test site at stage 6. This is efficient in that it saves the technical
person or webmaster having to update the page until the copy is agreed. An alternative
would be for the graduate to write the copy at stage 1 and then the webmaster publishes
the material before it is reviewed by the various parties. Each approach is equally valid.
It is apparent that this process is quite involved, so the process needs to be clearly under-
stood within the company or otherwise web pages may be published that do not conform
to the look and feel for the site, have not been checked for legal compliance, or may notCHAPTER 9· MAINTAINING AND MONITORING THE ONLINE PRESENCE