[LINK] After 10 years, standards are still loosely-defined

[Craig Sanders]

On Tue, Aug 10, 2004 at 03:29:10PM +1000, Howard Lowndes wrote:
> > After 10 years, I would have thought that sellers of big-ticket items such
> > as motor vehicles would have had a greater incentive (and greater cash
> > reserves) to market via the web rather well. Perhaps not.
> 
> The point is that marketing over the web for big ticket items doesn't get
> bodies in the showrooms where the "puppy dog" technique can be applied.  Ppl
> who research items on the web are likely to be far more analytical in their
> approach to their requirements and therefore make harder selling targets.

true....but what they don't realise is that the people who research things
thoroughly on the web are a completely different market to the ones who 
go into the showroom, and if they don't see enough useful information on the
web site, they probably aren't ever going to go the showroom.

i know that's my attitude when buying stuff - if they don't want to give me
details (including specs and prices) on the web where i can make comparisons
without being hassled by a sales-droid, then i'm just not interested.  i'm far
more likely to buy stuff when i can research it properly BEFORE going in to
buy.

they should think of the web market as being similar to the demographic that
reads choice magazine or (for cars) reads several reviews of similar models in
various car mags....i.e. people who prefer to convince themselves with detailed
information rather than being pressured by bullshit and hype.

the web designers should design their sites from the POV of the BUYER, not the
seller.  they should ask themselves "if I was looking for a <whatever>, then
what would i want to know?"



i've run into this same problem recently.  i'm toying with the idea of buying a
scooter as a second vehicle.....but none of the scooter web sites i've seen are
anything more than crappy brochure-ware.  some have decent specs, but none of
them even have prices.  HTF are you supposed to make any kind of decision when
you can't even tell which models are in your price range?  or even slightly
increase your price range if the next better model has some feature you really
want?  i don't want to waste hours researching one particular model, only to
find out that it costs twice as much as i want to spend - i want to eliminate
such items from my search immediately so i can concentrate my efforts on those
that are possible.


> Having said that, it still doesn't excuse alienating some of your possible
> market, more so when various US departments have recommended against using
> M$IE.

yep.

banks are an excellent example of this.  if i were looking for a new bank, i
would steer clear of any that had a web site that only worked in windows - that
tells me that they don't give a damn about security, so i'm certainly not going
to trust them to hold my money.

(although i have heard that they have fixed it now, the ANZ breaking their web
site so that it only worked on windows was the final straw for me several years
ago.  i dumped them immediately and switched to a bank that didn't force me to
use a crappy, insecure operating system and browser to do my internet banking).

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>

The next time you vote, remember that "Regime change begins at home"