I read an article this morning on cnn.com where Ken Voigt starts his article about ‘Cyber crime’ by writing: “The past 12 months have been a banner year for cyber crime. And that could be bad news for the future of e-commerce. “At current trends, in three or four years people will start to think twice about transacting on the Web, individuals and businesses,” said Michael Fraser, director of the communications law centre at the University of Technology Sydney.
It hit me that this is exactly why we need to pay more attention to what we are doing online and in marketing in general. It’s simple actually; just make sure that we always add another ingredient to our strategies and concepts; ‘honesty’. Be truthful and reveal who you are and make it interesting.
Trust has been an issue for some time now. People don’t even trust the established corporations, how can you expect them to trust you?
I checked a few online stores and companies this morning to see what they are doing to give their visitors confidence in them. I started with a Google search to find online stores with ‘Christmas plates for sale”. I got over 1,1 million results, so I started with one of the sites listed on the first page. In the “who We Are’ section it says they are a shopping mall website; that they collect and displays products from many different retailers and organizes them for my shopping convenience.
Their contact page only gives an address and an email. Nothing about who they really are, their story, their passion for the products they sell and more. Nothing that really gives me the confidence shop with them. I am not saying that this site or company is not legit, I am sure they are. I am just saying that they have not given me a reason to shop with them.
It is different with companies who we know and love, like Amazon.com or Apple.com, but there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of e-commerce and corporate websites out there with no background, brand, image or ‘trust-factor’. With so much competition out there isn’t it about time to use this easy concept to gain ground among their competitors?
This reminds me of the McGraw-Hill ad that David Ogilvy created: “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know your company. I don’t know your company’s product. I don’t know what your company stands for. I don’t know your company’s customers. I don’t know your company’s record. I don’t know your company’s reputation. Now – what was it you wanted to sell me?”
When you want me to trust you as a company, at least be honest and post who you are and the reasons for why you want me as a customer. I have so many choices. No wonder online visitors won’t trust you or your company.
Tags: cyber crime, e-commerce, Marketing, online stores, web sites
July 7, 2010 at 1:14 am |
I couldn’t agree with you more… which is why my tagline is Branding YOU Better! Companies have to have style and continuity and be proud of themselves, their product and/or service or the public doesn’t respect them.
I try very hard to have my clients see that all their materials, website, email campaigns or print advertising must all look like they belong to the same company. The minute they do one ad in a different way or crappy way, they just water down their brand and we all see it.