CREATION: Dotcoms learn the hard way that you can still lose big on the Internet

Dotcoms which fail to live up to their advertising now face being shunned by consumers, a trend demonstrating the fact that online has caught up with offline. Speakers at the MarCom Asia 2000 Conference in Hong Kong said that five years ago when the Internet was just taking off, consumers were very forgiving because they treated anything cyber as a novelty which offered an exciting vision of the future. Today, however, there is no shortage of bad 'Net experiences. The scams. Dissatisfaction with the product or service. Late delivery. In addition, people have become used to using the 'Net for communication and information-gathering so their outlook on the new medium is more mature. Yahoo! Asia's vice-president and managing director Savio Chow said, "In the mid to late 1990s, people were forgiving because everything was so new. But their mindset has changed. They are definitely much more demanding and sophisticated. When they make a purchase, there is little or no differentiation in their minds over whether it was on or offline." Mr Garry Titterton, president and CEO of D'Arcy Asia-Pacific said advertisers and marketers operating in both the virtual and bricks and mortar store are given almost no margin of error by consumers. "The consumer will no longer tolerate seeing glossy TV commercials and then going to a store to have a less than satisfying experience. Or having entered a Web site and ordered a product feel sold short by its quality. "The customer experience must be of seamless excellence to underpin the brand promise. Disparity between an expensive promise and clumsy delivery will never create a great brand," he said. Because 'Net consumers are more sophisticated and demanding, dotcoms have to be as interactive as they claim. Ogilvy AsiaNet general manager Sean Rach said, "Brands once acted as a shorthand for speech - a message to the masses as it were. That message is now two-way - and if you ignore their voices, they'll rebel. "You need a clear dialogue process. Not only answering questions but adding to customer equity." But Mr Rach stressed that core truths about branding remained the same on and offline. "Strong brand equity is earned over time, not bought overnight. Branding is not about the naming. It is about the totality of the experience," he said. Yahoo!'s Mr Chow said that Internet marketers are now also talking about cost per experience (CPE) and return on attention (ROA), in addition to clickthrough rates, numbers of unique visitors and return on investment. However, he acknowledged that the method to measure CPE and ROA was still in the planning stage. MarCom Asia 2000 was organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council; co-organised by MEDIA and sponsored by AXN.

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