The State of the Net: : The New Frontier

Citation

Seltzer, R. (1999), "The State of the Net: : The New Frontier", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.1999.16.4.1.6

If you are looking for a history of the Internet as a medium for marketing, this is the book for you. If you enjoy navigating by looking through a rear‐view mirror, this could become your bible. But if you are looking for insights that will help you plan your future business, look elsewhere.

This book is well researched, but the basis of the research is statistics that were half a year old before it came off the press; and the Internet and related technologies change at lightning speed. (For instance, cable modems, which the author saw as far off on the horizon (p. 42), are commonplace already in markets like Boston; and standard consumer market PCs, which the author saw in the price range of $2,500‐3,500 (p. 28), now sell for $1,000 or less.)

First let′s look at the good points, the insights and advice that are right on target:

1. 1.

   <L LTYPE=″BULLET″>

2. 2.

   <LI>“Brochureware,′′ the common practice of posting on the Web marketing material that was written and designed for print, does not take advantage of the Web′s “interactive and customization strengths′′ (p. 149).

3. 3.

   <LI>While the amounts spent on banner advertising over the Internet keep rising, the value of such an advertising medium is still very much in doubt (pp. 37‐8). There are no good numbers available on results ‐‐ on how expenditure translates to sales.

4. 4.

   <LI>More and more, the Internet audience is “beginning to resemble characteristics of the American population as a whole′′. For instance, the number of women has gone up sharply over the last couple of years, and hence it is important to consider the unique interests and needs of women when designing a Web site (p. 60).

5. 5.

   <LI>The Internet has quickly moved from “curiosity′′ to “indispensable′′ (p. 67).

6. 6.

   <LI>Today more people use the Web than e‐mail ‐‐ a recent reversal (p. 68).

7. 7.

   <LI>Users are no longer afraid to use credit cards online (p. 89).

8. 8.

   <LI>Most users connect with relatively slow modems. Hence it is foolish today to design Web sites with multi‐media features that require very high bandwidth (p. 100).

9. 9.

   <LI>Users are in control of their own experience. “The single most important concept that marketers must master is that the Internet is about choice. Users choose the Web sites that interest them. If they are not interested they click to the next site. There is not one Internet, but a separate and unequal Internet for every user: an amorphous network of personal networks′′ (p. 133). “This high level of user control is thus the centerpiece of Internet marketing′′ (p. 136).

10. 10.

    <LI>Don′t confuse the Internet with a mass market medium. This is a different kind of beast: “the Internet is better suited for targeting a smaller number of people interactively than it is for intrusively broadcasting commercial information to reach a large number of passive viewers to create brand or corporate identity impressions′′ (p. 134).

In some cases, the insights are close, but not close enough. For instance, the author talks about the importance of the Internet for interacting with prospects (p. 136 and p. 149), but misses the importance of allowing users to interact with one another. He mentions that “community′′ features will be important for Web sites in the future (p. 147), but fails to define such a “community.′′ He notes that new users exhibit very different behavior from experienced ones (p. 71), but doesn′t consider why ‐‐ for instance the possibility that the Internet experience and environment change the outlook and behavior of those who get involved, that it′s not simply a matter of skill and familiarity, but also a shift in point of view, which could impact their future responses to traditional media. The author notes that a new medium does not necessarily displace preceding ones ‐‐ book publishing continues to grow despite the advent of movies and television; but he doesn′t consider how the medium changes audience expectations and hence leads to the transformation of the content of the previous media ‐‐ radio becomes talk, news, and music; the tempo and style of books shift to appeal to readers who expect to be engaged immediately.

The biggest problem with this book is what it misses entirely:

1. 1.

   <L LTYPE=″BULLET″>

2. 2.

   <LI>All the statistics are US‐based, but the Internet is a global phenomenon, connecting you with an international audience and opening new kinds of marketing opportunities.

3. 3.

   <LI>The author has nothing to say about the importance of non‐English content and automatic translation to meet the needs of non‐English‐speaking visitors, wherever they may live ‐‐ whether in Los Angeles or Zimbabwe.

4. 4.

   <LI>Much is said about Internet Access Providers, but nothing about Internet Presence Providers ‐‐ the rapidly growing set of companies that do not provide dial‐up access but do provide free or very inexpensive Web space for individuals and small companies to post whatever they want, to build their own audiences and interact with those audiences. (Tripod and Geocities already (June 1998) have over a million and a half members each.)

5. 5.

   <LI>There is no discussion of the cost of marketing over the Internet, for instance the cost of building and maintaining a Web site (aside from the cost of banner advertising) and trying to relate those costs to tangible benefits.

6. 6.

   <LI>The author ignores the important role of search engines in driving targeted traffic to a Web site, and the importance of having your current pages well indexed by the top engines (AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, etc.)

If you are interested in marketing on the Internet, you need to know how to attract the right audience to your site, and how to serve them once they arrive, questions that this book ignores.

The author seems to be more interested in statistical descriptions of users than in what users do while they are online and why they return to particular Web sites. The book is heavy on the demographics, and light on the unique culture and environment of the Internet.

The title has a subhead of “The New Frontier,′′ and there are passages which acknowledge that the Internet environment is radically different from what marketers may be used to. But the author never questions his own basic assumptions ‐‐ for instance, that demographics matter here. Remember, the concept of demographics evolved in response to the opportunities presented by the mass media. If you can economically broadcast a single message to large numbers of people, you must do everything you can to understand that mass audience, what messages appeal to what “kinds′′ of people and what vehicles are best for reaching your target “kinds′′ of people, and how to build a “brand′′ image, so your various messages through various vehicles will reinforce one another.

But, as the author points out, the Internet is not a mass medium. Yes, there are tens of millions of people with the capability to use the Internet, but they do not all go to the same Web site. The audience of the typical Web site is quite small and targeted, so small that statistical analysis is often a waste of time. But the opportunities to interact with, understand, and serve that audience are tremendous. Techniques, known as “collaborative filtering′′ (such as that offered by Firefly), let you allow your visitors to tell their preferences for particular classes of products (like music, books, and movies); and users typically are willing to spend lots of time rating the products that they have experienced in hopes of getting useful recommendations for future purchases (cf. the BookMatcher at Amazon.com). With tools like these you can match visitors based on the patterns of their tastes, rather than their age and income. Remember, demographics were a roundabout way of guessing people′s interests. When you can get straight to their desires and serve them directly, demographic pigeonholing becomes irrelevant.

In addition, this book presumes that Internet users are mostly passive consumers ‐‐ a television audience with an interactive aspect, so they can ask a few questions of the information provider. But instead, what we see today is an increasingly active set of users, who are not content to consume, who are itching to publish and produce themselves ‐‐ creating millions of personal Web pages that serve as an extension of e‐mail and chat, as another way that people try to connect with other people. The Internet is not a library and not a shopping mall; basically it is an event and social phenomenon, which has enormous implications for marketing, which this book does not explore.