Virtual Position is as Critical as a Real-World One
Suppose you're in the land of the lost, without food or water,
without any human habitation. You have a map and a compass. But
without knowing where you are, the map and compass are useless. If
you want to go somewhere, it's critical to know where you are
in relationship to other entities.
In business, those entities are
other businesses who are providing similar products and services.
On the web, other web sites -- whether or not they have something
similar to offer -- are competing for visibility in one way or
another.
The only difference between a regular market position and a web
position are the qualities of the real and virtual worlds. Each
quality will determine how the offering can be positioned:
Real World
|
Virtual World
|
| Physical
Location. Local businesses find new customers from drive-bys,
local newspaper ads, billboards. |
Uniform
Resource Location. (URL). You can't "happen
by" a URL. You must know it exactly or find it
through a search engine or a link from
another web site. |
| Limited
Competitors & Competition.
Real-world competition is restricted to what the user
can imagine at the time, while in the virtual world, the
search engine "presents" the competition in as
many forms as are available.
There are approximately 25 million business in the
United States. (Source: BizStats.com)
Only a small fraction of these would be considered
direct competitors.
|
More
Competitors,
More Competition.
If a customer is looking to buy a birdhouse, and the
term brings up other options, the risk is higher that
they will
consider an alternative. The keyword "bird house" might come up with
alternatives such as:
- show you how to build a birdhouse
- have birdhouses for sale
- have birdhouse plans for sale
- show birdhouses someone built
- show a variety of birdhouse designs
- news on the bird house at the ABC National Park
- ...and so on...
Every responding page presents competition.
There are over 3 billion web pages indexed in
major search engines. (Source: Google)
See also SEO
>> |
| Niche
comes from the characteristics of an offering.
(location, price, features, etc.) |
Niche
comes first from a keyword term and characteristics
second.
More on niches >> |
| Physical
Marketing Vehicles:
Magazine ads, new press releases, direct mail,
brochures, etc.
The following challenges stand between a customer and
the physical marketing vehicle:
disabilities (Glasses for
reading the ad, dyslexia, etc.)
privilege (Grade school education
for high school level communication style, financially disadvantaged
community)
good design practice (using the
design principles appropriate for the particular medium)
stand between
|
Virtual
Marketing Vehicles:
Browser, email, search engines.
Online has the same challenges as physical, with these
added:
user sophistication (novice,
intermediate, power user, etc.)
browser technology (IE, Netscape,
Firefox, etc.)
monitor capabilities & setting
versions (3.0, 4.0, etc)
access speed (56K modem, DSL,
cable modem, T1, etc.)
assistive technologies (reader
for blind users, joystick for quadriplegic users, etc.) |
| Better for
Experimentation & Experiential Products
In person, a customer can see fewer alternatives but
can experience directly, "try it on," see, smell
touch, etc.
Better for products like foot massagers, clothing,
color sensitive materials (paints), mechanical products |
Better for
Size Up & Comparison. Online, a user
can see many alternatives and compare quickly, but cannot
experience in the same way. Better for digital products,
and products that are "objects" with no moving
parts. |
- In both worlds, web sites are always competing.
- Real and virtual worlds often assist one another to
achieve marketing goals.
|
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