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Mitch's E-Marketing Posts

eMarketing Trade Show After Thoughts

Finally, after 4 weeks of in-class lectures and discussion, we have once again come to the end of the current MBA period. The eMarketing Trade Show event in the evening of Monday, October 6 was a success considering the number of visitors come to the show (I think we have about 100 people showed up). Although many of us had prepared our own pitching lines and presentation materials, the live event still give us challenges as different audiences come with different opinions and questions.

I like to start reviewing my work for this project first from the above 2 images. These images are the representation of the "before and after" look of our display board. Personally, I like to visualize both the output or even outcome before I produce. Therefore the sketch (image on the top/left) was created to guide our production process. I am quite pleased that the final board look very identical from the original layout. This approach really save us lots of time when trying to put this board together.

The concept on this board is simple: To demonstrate best practices of selected brands in the fashion industry that we identified as companies that successfully linking their online web platform and offline business operation closely with each other. In another word, we are demonstrating the synergy between online and offline marketing environment.

Our board was created with a clear message on the top, and then we identified 3 fashion brands: Gucci, Armani Exchange (A/X), and Land's End to showcase business at different pricing levels. We were thinking of taking 2 brands for each level, but realizing it could make the display look too busy and difficult for our audiences to follow or understand. As a result, we have narrowed it down to 1 company each.

In Gucci's example, we use an arrow pointing from the ONLINE to the OFFLINE meaning that the company is using their website to drive audiences/consumers to shop offline (in their stores). Although the company does offer online shopping, it is only located in the US and UK. The white index cards between Gucci's online and offline images are the key words that representing best practices for the business to link the 2 environments.

The same idea applies for both A/X and Land's End, showing the linkage between. The only differences in those categories are the arrows are pointing at different directions. Meaning, for A/X, they are creating consistency between the online and offline environment. Whereas Land's End is trying to drive users to experience their online web environment deeper.

We have heard many friendly comments about our simple concept, image clarity, and visual presentation about our work. We also got some challenging questions to see if we have performed any deeper researches by engaging in the actual shopping experience or data to support our observations. Although those questions might not be clearly answered, we took this experience as a reminder/lesson to help us improving in our future projects.

On the good site, we also got a number of audiences' deep interest in this subject area and their also shared their opinion on the disconnection between the online and offline environment. Mr. Patrick Weilmeier also pointed out the huge business opportunity that helps companies to create the online-offline synergy. The truth is that many organizations want to go line (and they did), but failed to treat the online community as an internal department to run and to maintain. Every company's web strategy should be consistent with other functional departments within the firm. Therefore, companies, especially SMEs, should look even closer on how they can fully utilize the tools that allow them to drive business profits together in the online and offline worlds.

"You could win $1000 or an iPod!"

I just spent about 10 minutes filling an online survey from http://www.indigofeedback.com/ (after I purchased 2 magazines from the Chapters bookstore on Robson and Howe Street) and realizing that this bookstore chain giant in Canada is not making/training their employees to push the customers to go online in an offline purchase.

Personally, after I learned about how you can obtain a free Burger King burger by phone in to take a 5 minutes survey after each purchase, I began to have a habit of reading all the words (not just the numbers) on my shopping receipts. Just like many stores that I visited who actually tried to use their receipts to deliver valuable/promotional information, they failed to include a simple piece of elements to make their online survey more effectively - ASK THE CASHIER TO BRIEF THE CUSTOMER ABOUT THE INFO ON THE RECEIPT.

That reminded me that when Starbucks Coffee is trying to exercise their seasonal online survey, they make sure their employees tell the customers about it. Maybe it's because Starbucks is making the survey seasonal, so the employees do not have to tell the customers all the time. Nevertheless, I still think this little reminder/gesture can actually create more synergy between the online and offline world within the same company and fill in the gaps in between.