Eleven: A Web of Interactivity
The chapter begins with the authors suggesting that the Web, which has gotten a lot of attention, isn't the answer to everything - then a sharp turn to speak of salience.
This is demonstrated by example, and a product launch in 2005 that developed a site that used a "bucket of keywords" to attract attention - that is, they considered the terms for which a user might search, rather than counting on the user to enter their brand name to find them.
Branding Online
The Web is not an intrusive medium: it is more like a newspaper or magazine than a television or radio broadcast, in which the advertising is laid out beside the content the user came to see, rather than interspersed within it.
Various attempts to intercept attention have met with resistance: marketing e-mail gave rise to spam filters, ads appearing in pop-up windows to grab attention were followed shortly by pop-up blockers. And while some advertisers continue to attempt to grab attention, most have come to recognize that an unwanted intrusion is a negative association to the brand.
Search advertising is one of the few effective methods of reaching users online - the keywords the user has entered provide insight into what he is seeking. In that sense, the advertiser isn't inflicting a message on person who is not likely to be interested or paying attention, but presenting information to a person who might have an interest in it.
That is to say that you're not shouting "try bleach" at a crowd of people who are attempting to watching a baseball game - but you are saying "try bleach" to a person who has asked a search engine how to get grass stains out of their clothing.
Web Branding Considerations
The authors suggest that branding works best on items that are purchased frequently, such as grocery-store items, but branding goods that are rarely purchased is more difficult because the brand is not often on their mind. (EN: I don't think this is valid at all. People are very particular about some brands they do not purchase frequency, such as their car or wristwatch, and indifferent to brands of things they buy most frequently, like eggs, milk, and bread.)
The Web best fits then earliest stages of the buying process: search engine advertising can bring your brand to the attention of a customer who might benefit from your product, information on your site feeds interest and builds desire, and an online ordering system enables them to take action (and only customer support enables them to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction).
Sponges, Thimbles, and Sieves
The author speaks to the various metaphors that suggest people are inundated with more information than they could possibly give attention. But in reality, this is nothing new: we are and have always been bombarded with sense data from the environment - even in a setting devoid of advertising.
The human mind is exceptionally good at quickly recognizing which data is important and ignoring the rest as inconsequential ... and this is where advertising often fail, in that it is just more irrelevant data in the environment, which the brain ignores before it is even consciously noticed.
Relevance
When people converse with one another, each line of dialog proceeds logically from the previous one - that is, the person offers something relevant to that which was just said. The chief problem with firms that enter into conversation is that they generally do not listen - it's very much like attempting to have a conversation with a pull-string doll that.
The author provides some egregious examples in which firms have relied on technology to serve customers, and the results have been less than satisfactory and, in some instances, highly frustrating to customers who get automated responses that have nothing to do with the questions they asked or the information they provided.
The Internet in particular provides a venue in which a buyer with a need will seek out a producer with a solution - very much like a global Yellow Pages.
The entree to the Internet is the search engine, which enables users to find information relevant to their needs quickly. Google, which rules search today, was once a newcomer, but one which quickly took the lead for its simplicity and lack of clutter. While the leading search engines at the time had become bloated with features and plastered with advertising, Google offered a simple proposition: a search that would help people find exactly what they wanted. That is to say that Google delivered results that were relevant to what the user actually searched for, without advertisements or spam.
Google has allowed advertising to creep back in, but in a manner that is mostly effective in ensuring relevance to the user's search phrase - and, over time, aggregating information about each user to enable advertisers to target them on more advanced criteria.
Are You Really Listening?
The true brilliance of the Web is that it is a medium in which prospects and customers can be closely watched so that the brands wishing to serve them can make very intelligent choices based on the users' behavior. The great tragedy is that the firms, with all this data at their disposal, still fail to do so.
Marketers have always claimed to listen to their customers, and some honestly believe that they are doing so - but most of the listening occurs in unnatural and contrived situations such as focus groups and surveys, which direct and distort the conversation, accidentally or intentionally, to tell companies what they wish to hear.
The text that individuals enter into search engines is a much more honest representation of what people really are interested in, and their remarks in social media are more honest representations of what they really think. It is the coveted opportunity to be a fly on the wall, to hear what people the world over honestly think of your brand, and your competitors, and what they wish were different about you.
The Web is by no means the only medium available: new media are on the rise and the old media are still around - but it its ability to monitor and measure user behavior in a way that informs us in shaping experience, it is unparalleled.