646 The Marketing Book
Chaffey et al. (2003) suggest there are six choices
for a company deciding on which marketing
servicesto offer via an on-line presence.
Level 0. No website or presence on the web.
Level 1. Basic web presence. Company places an
entry in a website listing company names such as
http://www.yell.co.uk to make people searching the
web aware of the existence of a company or its
products. There is no website at this stage.
Level 2. Simple static informational website.
Contains basic company and product
information, sometimes referred to as
brochureware.
Level 3. Simple interactive site. Users are able to
search the site and make queries to retrieve
information such as product availability and
pricing. Queries by e-mail may also be
supported.
Level 4. Interactive site supporting transactions with
users. The functions offered will vary according
to the company. They will usually be limited to
on-line buying. Other functions might include an
interactive customer service helpdesk which is
linked into direct marketing objectives.
Level 5. Fully interactive site supporting the whole
buying process. Provides relationship marketing
with individual customers and facilitates the full
range of marketing exchanges.
Note that such stage models of website develop-
ment are most appropriate to companies whose
products can be sold on-line through transac-
tional e-commerce. Stage models also apply to a
range of different types of on-line presence and
business models, each with different objectives.
Four of the major different types of on-line
presence are:
1 Transactional e-commerce site. Stage models as
described above. Examples: a car manufacturer
such as Vauxhall (www.buypower.vauxhall.co.uk)
or retailers such as Tesco (www.tesco.com).
2 Services-oriented relationship building website. For
companies such as professional services
companies, on-line transactions are
inappropriate. Through time these sites will
develop increasing information depth and
question and answer facilities. Examples:
PricewaterhouseCooper (www.pwcglobal.com),
Accenture (www.accenture.com) and Arthur
Andersen KnowledgeSpace
(www.knowledgespace.com).
3 Brand building site. These are intended to support
the off-line brand by developing an on-line
experience of the brand. They are typical for
low-value, high-volume Fast Moving Consumer
Goods (FMCG brands). Examples: Tango
(www.tango.com), Guinness
(www.guinness.com).
4 Portal site. Service delivery and links to
information services. Examples: Yahoo!
(www.yahoo.com) and Vertical Net
(www.verticalnet.com).Similar stage models can also be developed for
all aspects of supply chain management which
are necessary as part of delivering the marketing
concept. Table 25.2 presents a synthesis of stage
models for e-business development. Organiza-
tions can assess their position on the continuum
between stages 1 and 4 for the different aspects
of e-business development shown in the column
on the left. When companies devise strategies
and tactics they may return to the stage models
to specify which level of innovation they are
looking to achieve at future points in time.
The internal analysis also looks at key
performance indicators (KPIs) of e-marketing.
Common KPIs used to assess on-line the
significance of e-marketing activities include
traditional measures such as: Enquiries.
Sales.
Market share.
ROI (return on investment).Other KPIs are specific to e-marketing: On-line revenue contribution(see section on
objective setting).
Unique visitors– the number of separate,
individual visitors who visit the site (typically
over a month).