In the 2003 article entitle “Online customers are often fickle, and it can be tough converting visitors into sales”, author Fergal Byrne was ready to talk about ways to attract customers and how to keep them to company’s online presences. This article might sound relevant at the time especially after the dot com businesses are finding their ways to reposition the internet business model. Today, after another 5 years of development and evolution, we are seeing a much integrated synergy between the online and offline world. When we use the online apparel retailing as an example, we have observed that the online marketing is experiencing some of the same challenges as offline marketing such as ease of buying, retention, and delivery fulfillment.
Businesses these days should not apply the same internet business model to the online marketplace or treat them as a separate entity from the offline world. In fact, according to the trend briefing report published by trendwatching.com in September 2008, the offline world is “adjusting” and “mirroring” to be more like the online world. For example, designers are adopting the images of QR-Code Pattern or Pixels to create landscaping design, furniture, and even fashion accessories. While the creative minds are “turning the online symbols into the object”, another trend to encourage the virtual creativity is to materialize the binaries into the tangible that can be touched and feel. The virtual creation is now walking into our daily lives.
The impact of internet on people’s lives has been so significant that businesses and marketers are seeing an opportunity to create the consumer products/services experiences based on the users’ online behaviors. We are seeing more individualized products or customized services for users from various background and knowledge that gear toward this change in consumer behavior. The core concept is that taking what’s being done “better” online and apply it offline. Some of the concepts or processes include the following:
- Sharing (Zip Car)
- 24/7 (Shoppers Drug Mart)
- Cheap, fast and easy (Virgin Mobile)
- Free (Fitness 1 Week Free Trial Membership)
- DIY (IKEA)
- Customization, personalization, creation (Dell Computer)
The list indeed goes on with many more best online processes and practices (or coming from offline originally) that the offline world is making an effort to perfect it.
While many might go crazy of turning the offline into online, there’s another stream of creative businesses moving the online word in to the offline mode. After all, if OFF=ON; then ON should equal to OFF as well. The online community is attempting to create more “Visibility”, "Warm Bodies”, and ease of travelling with the need to enable internet ready’s “Mobile” device. The German version of the “Wikipedia encyclopedia in one volume” is an example of how the online creation gets their visibility offline.
I do believe that human beings cannot live without any social connection in the physical (offline) world. With this being said, I personally give a high remarks on Meetup.com’s tagline that they believe to help their members to “Use the Internet to get off the Internet!” The internet is a powerful tool that help people to explore and expand their current social network, but it should never replace the basic human’s need in people connection. The body language, the tone of voice, and the emotion will not be replaced easily by the machine or online symbols.
All the above ideas and examples are trying to illustrate the integrated relationship between the online and the offline world. Businesses in today’s “digital age” need to take a closer look on how they can marry their online and offline activities in harmony. The online and offline are still two distinct activities, yet they have lot of rooms to work with and for each other.
Just like any marriage in real life, it all started with an idealized plan for the new and wonderful future. You spend all the money to plan and to create the wedding (i.e. offline company launches their online presences). You enjoy the honeymoon period on the early “merging” stage, as you still look handsome and beautiful in each other’s eyes. Sometimes later in your marriage, you assume that the other party is going to get the things done, yet nothing happened (why is the online business not generating the targeted sales? why do our customers complaint so much?). You met the attractive someone and thinking that will change your life (a new marketing channel or tool that get you excited and you ignore about your existing online platform). You realized that you’ve already made the online investment and decided to stick with that (begin to reinvent the ways and develop your online/offline synergy). A true harmonized marriage takes the time to work on all the glitches and mismatches. We don’t know how well will it perform, but we need to be adventures enough to step into each other’s (online to offline or offline to online) territory in order to understand how to work better with each other.
PS. Although the above use the marriage metaphor to describe the online-offline integrated relationship, the Wikivorce website is another classic example how a typical offline divorce advising services went wild and big online.
References:
- Online Marketing, Fergal Byrne; Directorl August 2007; 57, 1; ABI/INFORM Global pg. 54
- Trends in online apparel retailing: Online issues, Malcolm Newbery; Just – Style; June 2006 ABI.INFORM Global pg. 17
- www.trendwatching.com/trendreport
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