Marketing Basics

Following is an editorial by Clark Rowley which appeared in the May 2004 issue of the Midwest Technology Journal.

The Web is advancing at breakneck speed.

Born and raised in central Illinois, Kevin Bayless moved to St. Louis in 1990. An accountant with a local firm and a Tower Grove East resident, Kevin enjoys bicycle riding and is pictured stopped on the Eads Bridge, opened to vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle traffic in July, 2003. In the background is the St. Louis Arch and the "Delta Queen," moored to discharge passengers after a run from Chattanooga.

Languages, delivery and construction technologies are growing ever more complex and exotic.

Curiously, many in the non-profit sector voice an almost universal disappointment with the Web sites of their organizations. This suggests the existence of a serious disconnect between the technical splendor of the Web and the use of the Web as an effective communication tool.

Although cutting edge bells and whistles are offered, what is really needed by many organizations is a medium which permits development of context to facilitate conveying sopisticated concepts.

Look at other media to see how they fulfill this need. Print journalism personalizes the news. Every issue of a daily newspaper marches an army of people across its pages. Politicians, criminals, cultural leaders, sports figures, neighborhood people and specimens from the spectrum of humanity are quoted, described and pictured. Each person assists in the creation of context for particular ideas, concepts and behaviors. Each helps deliver complex messages from the world around us. People make the news. Their presence in a newspaper bring life to the articles.

This lesson is further driven home by television journalism. Live feeds and the use of people and their words, the testimonies of those involved and transmission of sights and sounds all result in an interesting context that gives intimacy and meaning to the story.

It would appear that site developers and Web technicians sidestep the essential precepts of print and television journalism. Long recognized guidelines regarding the marketing of ideas are underutilized.

Ignoring these well-grounded journalistic principles is only part of the problem. There is also a failure to understand and to develop the unique characteristics of the Web that could help it to promulgate ideas. Too often, the accent is on sizzle, rather than meaningful communication. Since many Web sites need to market messages beyond the scope of sizzle, this results in dissatisfaction with Web sites as a viable communication tool.

The Web has the potential to be a more powerful marketplace for ideas. Social perceptions and context shape performance and the projection of ideas. In other words, people respond to a site that speaks to them. To effectively communicate, a successful Internet presence bridges the gap between page and reader by the use of engaging anecdotal testimony and other personalized messages in order to create context. The Web's potential can be more completely realized by recognizing that the first objective is communication, rather than the production of a magic show.

The basic point is that technicians and communicators need to blend their skills and insights to realize more fully the potential of the Web.