INTERNET MEDIA: iLux technology heralds start of true one-to-one Internet marketing

Picture a man clicking his way through a supermarket website. He clicks on items to place them in his shopping basket, all the while a running total tells him how much he is buying. Nothing special here. However, what is special is that the next time he visits this website, banner ads and pop-ups appear on the screen with messages about discounts on items he purchased before. This represents the closest model yet to the true definition of one-to-one marketing, and it was made possible with new technology developed by US company iLux Corporation, which recently agreed to sell a 30 per cent equity stake in itself to Hong Kong-based dotcom firm, Cash Online. The banner ads and pop-ups are customised to each consumer's tastes and needs - and because they are computer-generated, the customisation possibilities are virtually limitless. iLux president Ted Marr said the way to build profits through the ecommerce channel was to have software that tracked a customer's every move on the Web in order to build a profile of that person. "Once you have a detailed profile of the person, the computer can generate customised Web ads - with the aid of a template. "This gives rise to better one-on-one business-to-consumer relationships and it will lead to better customer support," Mr Marr told MEDIA. He claimed that this type of attention to detail is 100 times more powerful than anything currently on the market. "The technology produces a pure communications message to one person and that establishes a personal touch in an Internet world which right now is quite impersonal," Mr Marr said. However, this application employs both on-line and off-line methods to communicate with consumers. When consumers enter a website with the iLux technology in it, visit and purchase behaviour, demographic data and Web forms are noted down. These are then analysed to understand who the visitors are and what their interests are, which paves the way for the company to match visitor interests to specific products and services through advertising. The final step is to embrace certain aspects of advertising to reinforce certain messages to consumers. This is accomplished by iLux through a variety of methods including telemarketing, in-store electronic kiosks, direct mail and targeted emails. iLux vice-president John Yung - who is currently in the process of setting up an Asia-Pacific office in Hong Kong - said: "Everyone is talking about total integration and we are doing the same. In this case, we try to serve the customer as best we can by getting to know them through their history." He added that consumers can also, through a chat box, talk to a sales representative to get more information about a certain product or service. The sales rep will have at his disposal the purchasing history of the consumer to ensure the best possible service, said Mr Yung. He stressed that all data is aggregated by the computer and detailed information is not passed onto unauthorised people to ensure privacy laws are not breached.

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