Strategic alliance can go awry.
Now that we are past the predicaments of accountability and division of labor, what awaits us is the equally, if not more, thorny issue of strategic alliance.
Corporate websites are not exactly where surfers swarm. In fact, I have heard some corporate webmaster joke that the website is for the boss's eye only, because if the traffic report is any guide, the corporate website is about as popular as a morgue.
This was not a problem a few years back when it was still uncustomary for a corporate website to be charged with the task of selling products. That is, many companies set up websites only to offer basic services to clients (as opposed to trying to sell them products) or to make sure that interested buyers would know who to contact.
The effort to increase traffic to corporate websites is doomed as the general public would not find any of the information they need on a daily basis on a corporate website. For that, they have
portal websites to turn to. Promotion through
advertisement might pump up traffic, but the effect will be short-lived.
Having two websites linked with each other is another popular way of boosting website traffic. Due to budgetary strains, corporate webmaster sometimes seek to exchange hyperlinks with one another, hoping that people clicking into one might as well click into another. This marks the inception of strategic alliance between websites.
However, for a corporate website to benefit form such alliance, the other website must be enjoying greater traffic. The problem is why would any such website want to exchange links with yours if it already enjoys greater traffic?
The moment a company starts Internet marketing/sales is the moment that company must start to forge alliances that make sense. To make the alliance worthy of the adjective "strategic," the company must ask itself this question, "what strategy does this company have in mind?"
Strategic alliance between websites is essentially the same as the strategic alliance as we have always known. There is no need for business owners to get cold feet.
The following are two different schools of strategic thinking for a corporate website:
- Strategic alliance for streamlining of distribution chain:
In case that the corporate website is meant to be the channel for Internet sales, the company must strive to boost traffic to increase sales. For that, some business owners deem it necessary to set aside advertisement expenses regularly to promote their own websites at Internet portals. But the rub is:
Only a very small percentage of surfers at portal sites will notice Internet ads, and of those who actually pay attention, only a very few will click on the ads leading to a corporate website. In turn, of those who made it into the corporate website, a still lower percentage will come through with the purchasing process. All in all, the wear and tear of the effect of the ads is unimaginably high.
The purpose of resorting to the Internet is to shorten the distance between the sellers and the consumers. But would you think that, first of all, the sales channel from portals to corporate website is way too long to be effective, with so many layers in it, and second, most of your advertisement budget is wasted. Even worse, there seems no way stopping it.
Having thought of all that, some business owners choose to form alliance with portal sites where they set up a virtual store on them and dispense with its own corporate website. By doing so, they have the shortest sales channel on the Net.
Most business owner would think that the Internet is a place where the interaction with consumers is the most direct. This, however, is a myth, as the distribution chain typical of Internet sales is actually very long and does not really differ from other forms of channel in a lot of ways. That is, they all need to perfect themselves through structural streamlining.
- Strategic alliance for
brand building:
If the corporate website in question is not to process sales but to promote a brand name and nurture client relations, then the website will need updating much more frequently in a way that echoes consumer demands. In this case, the corporate website would act as a content provider/dispenser.
But even so, content itself can still pose a distribution problem as where the content publishes from the website, whether the content makes its way via the right channel to the right eyes, and how much information on average reached the target readers are all things to be looked into before the effectiveness of the strategic alliance can be decided.
Synnex (NYSE:SNX), a global information technology (IT) supply chain services company, has as one made it clear that it has no plans to conduct sales through the Internet, which, however, doesn't mean that it doesn't appreciate the importance of building long-term customer relationship as well as brand name image over the Internet, and for exactly those two causes, Synnex set up the E City website.
The site, constantly updated, serves as a repository of information on products ranging from specifications to other things about products that people would be interested in. Also, to expand the website readership, Synnex chose to play the role of a content provider. In that capacity, Synnex forged strategic alliance with one of the major portal in Taiwan, PChome, through which Synnex is able to expose content of its choice to the largest possible web-surfing populations.
Discussion above seems to suggest that the collaboration with portal sites is inevitable. Not quite, actually, as I would ask business owners to focus once again on the quintessence of a strategic alliance between a company website and a portal, which should serve to remove them from the one-track mind that cooperation must be with portal sites. It may be true that collaboration with a portal brings people to your company website, but the fact could well be that these people are not who you wish to see.
Three articles into discussion of corporate website, we should have learned that the one thing that is of primal priority is the positioning of a website. Without a clear sense of direction as to where the website wishes to get in the first place, no sales activity design, no marketing campaign, no customer service, no supply chain management, and no strategic alliance, for that matter, is possible.
At a time when the stage is set for
eCommerce in Taiwan, my heart goes to enterprises wishing to quickly warm to its role up there.
(
2003/10/12
- By
Digitalwall.com - Way to
China Internet/Telecom )
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Prev : Corporate Website a Handful (2) Division of Labor How?
Next : How Did Tablet PC End up in Failure
- Today in History
The Web 2.0 Revolution (7) Death of the Intermediaries - 2006/10/15
Another Picture of Digital Home Market - 2005/10/16
Corporate Website a Handful (3) Strategic Alliance Why? - 2003/10/12
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