VIEWPOINT: Build, build, build ... and then you build some more

We have read the signs, and we do not like what they say. We thought we knew it all, but now it looks like we don't really know what we're supposed to be doing. This is a fact. According to a MindShare survey of university students in Hong Kong - these are the consumers of the future, the alleged "early adopters" - a piffling 13 per cent had ever bought anything over the Internet. Alright, so it could be argued that university students are not big spenders in any case, even though they have access to the credit cards required for payment of goods purchased online. But here is a far more frightening statistic: 70 per cent of respondents could not recall seeing any advertising at all while on the Internet. And remember, these are users who log on up to seven days a week, spending up to 2.5 hours online each time. At the recent Reader's Digest Superbrands seminars in Hong Kong and Singapore, speakers repeatedly made the point that branding and brand-building had become even more complex now that the 'Net was a daily reality. With competition now able to copy products and services in a matter of days (rather than months, as was the case in the past), a new 'P' had been added to the traditional Four Ps of marketing: perception. At the end of the day, all your hard-fought battles to build a recognisable brand that delivers on its promise can be a waste of time if no perception management is applied within the marketing framework. And when you're talking cyberspace, the issue becomes even more critical - winning or losing the war can hinge on something as simple as whether or not users think your website sucks. And don't forget your online ads - if you can't get users to remember them, let alone click on them, the race is over even before it has begun. So, again: we don't know it all, we never did, and it's more than likely that we never will. The best we can do is keep trying.

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