bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

The secret of e-business is 'me-business', or putting the customer first, according to a leading Net marketing guru from the United States.

 G M O'Connell, founder and chairman of Internet advertising and marketing agency Modem Media.Poppe Tyson said that the best way to win customers was not through traditional media tactics such as catchy slogans or creating a brand image, but by providing useful on-line services that kept the customer coming back.

 'There was a time when advertising was all about someone else. The new business philosophy in this Internet age is the consumer and the holder of the mouse reigns supreme,' Mr O'Connell said.

 'The World-Wide Web is about me, me, me.'   He said Internet businesses would be successful only when they thought of ways to drive services to people, rather than driving people to their sites.

 'Web advertising in and of itself is not of any value,' Mr O'Connell said, adding that the difference between the Internet and older forms of media was the Internet's interactivity, which empowered the consumer and raised his or her expectations.

 'Building a better me-business means paying more than lip-service to caring about what your customer wants,' he said.

 The 38-year-old self-described former 'ski bum' helped develop one of the first on-line shopping malls in the 1980s using the clunky videotext technology that was leading edge at the time.

 Later, he co-founded what became Modem Media.Poppe Tyson in 1987. The profitable New York-based firm had revenues of US$42 million last year, mostly through building Web sites and designing Internet marketing strategies for its corporate clients.

 Among Modem Media's customers locally and worldwide are Citibank, Intel, Vodafone, John Hancock, General Motors and Swire Properties.

 Having listed on Nasdaq in February, Modem Media's market capitalisation is just above $700 million.

 Mr O'Connell said on-line companies that invested heavily in developing corporate Web sites but continued to follow existing marketing strategies would fail in the e-business era.

 'Most Web strategies are inherently flawed. You read print and you watch TV, but you use the Internet,' he said.

 As positive examples, Mr O'Connell cited corporate Web sites that attracted users by providing them with a relevant and useful service, such as an insurance company's Web site that enabled visitors to do long-term personal finance calculations.

 'Advertising doesn't work on the Internet. Services work. Messages don't work. Value through utility does. The way to getting the trust and loyalty of the customer is through further customisation and personalisation,' he said.

  Respecting a customer's privacy was also of utmost importance in winning customer loyalty, Mr O'Connell said.

 Thus, sensitively applied direct-marketing techniques such as opt-in e-mail, which let users decide beforehand if they wanted to receive it, were important.

E-COMMERCE 



Customer comes first in 'me-business' era