After more than a decade experience with the commercial web, you’d think major marketers would consider the web more than an afterthought.
However, evidence reveals many consumer marketers still can’t distinguish between a website, an ad or a brochure. While retailers like Wal-Mart, Lowes, Nordstrom and Circuit City get it, there are others that still seem confused.
When clothing retailer Gap ran its latest very cool television commercials and turned its website into a single page that read “Under Construction” for the past couple weeks (same thing with OldNavy.com, which shares the same corporate parent), I was pretty amazed.
Where’s the planning? What about integrated marketing?
You have to wonder if Gap would do the same with its retail stores. As of this writing, OldNavy.com still features the words “Under Construction.” All that's missing is the little animation of the construction worker shoveling.
3 comments:
Amazingly, the lack of internet savy and utilization is a common problem
among both small and large companies. You see the small business
down the road who struggles to make a sale, and does not consider the internet as an option. Then you see the large national and world corporations (such as Old Navy,Gap,Sears, and other mentioned companies) who make millions a year, and yet pay no real attention to the power the internet holds.
The issue at hand then is arguably that companies do not adjust to paradigm shifts, nor do they attempt to stay up to date with relevant focus on profitable business avenues. The newspaper ad and TV commercial may have been a "gold mine" in the past, but it will quickly pass by, and the trends are moving away from such things.
But these companies that fail to coordinate marketing strategy with online efforts are undoubtedly stuck in the board room while their sites "construct" the holes that they cant dig out of.
We find that advertising agencies are part of the problem, by continuing to direct client dollars into traditional media, so they can get their traditional cut...
I'm also amazed at the lack of integration amongst the various marketing channels by all businesses. There still seems to be a dramatic drop off in integrating online properties to deliver a brand experience the same way television, radio and print ads are used. In fact, I would argue that the Internet can deliver a far greater brand experience than the mediums mentioned above by the simple fact the user can interact with it.
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