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Web Marketing and Project Management
by by Donald Emerick, Kim Round with Susan Joyce., reviewed by Steve Carmeli - December 23, 2001 at 19:39:05:
This is a review of Web Marketing and Project Management by Donald Emerick, Kim Round with Susan Joyce. ISBN 0-13-016396-1 The book was written in partnership with the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) by Prentice Hall as part of two series of college textbooks. The two series are an introductory series and an advanced series totaling seven books, all on Web site development and maintenance. To give you an idea of how much Prentice Hall intended this book for classroom use, there is a section at the end of each chapter called Test Your Thinking; answers to the issues are only available to an instructor and only through a Prentice Hall salesperson.As its title states, this book is about marketing and project management for Web projects. In fact, I find it a bit too much about Internet marketing. The lead author states his view right up front: "The Internet is a worldwide network of computers that provides a highly interactive system for marketing communication. Nothing more and nothing less" (underlining added). Well, at least he's not bashful. I remember reading articles about the Internet before I began surfing the web. Writers who'd been introduced to the Internet during college or while doing research were complaining that the egalitarian nature of the Web would be undermined as the Web was commercialized. At first I didn't know what they were talking about. Now that I have started my own web site, dedicated to educating the public about third world poverty, a somewhat noble endeavor if I say so myself, I understand their complaint. Moving on.
This author starts off rather quickly stating that the book would be about the latest trend in marketing customer relationship marketing (CRM). The reason is not only because that is what's hot now but also because CRM relies heavily on computing. The five elements of CRM are (1) promotional marketing; (2) databases (computer reliant); (3) analysis (computing reliant); (4) marketing with offers; and (5) fulfillment (partly computer reliant). If a company commits to CRM, it isn't just used by sales or marketing. Every department in the company has access to the same database, which has a history of every contact the customer has had with the company. I've read a few articles on CRM in Info World and PC Magazine and it's not cheap. I was only able to get pricing on one vendor, NewChannel. Cost: $30,000 to $60,000 per month!
The book is heavy in study sections; it is structured like a book to be used in a classroom. Every chapter is structured as a series of labs (3.1, 3.2, 3.3, etc.). I estimate that « of the book is either questions to answer on your own or exercises with pages to fill out.
In chapter 2, the author outlines six stages of development Web sites take. These six stages are: 1. Advertising. When done on the Internet, this is usually nothing more than a home page. The author considers this a waste of time and possibly frustrating to prospective communicators. He considers it the equivalent of mass-market advertising. He believes the Internet is direct media, not mass media. 2. Promotion. Occasionally called 'brochureware,' it is "big on flowery language and 4-color artwork but not useful for the customer or prospect." 3. Interaction. A print media equivalent is a solicitation from a non-profit organization, containing a personalized letter, response card and a return envelope. According to the author, "A Web site that provides detailed product information with a toll-free number to call and order and a form requesting a catalog would be a good example." 4. Transaction. These are on-line ordering systems. "These Web sites enable end users to complete transactions on-line, without additional human interaction from the company or organization." 5. Transformation. At this point, a Web system has transformed activities that were previously done with human interaction. Examples are email, travel bookings and on-line stock trading. 6. Community. These Web sites are good for "professional or social affinity groups at trade shows, conferences and events." It is a group of people with a common interest using the Web to interact.
In chapter 3 the author begins laying down the foundation for developing your Web site in earnest, saying that there are four forces to contend with in Web site development. These forces to address are: (1) stratgey/vision; (2) needs/use; (3) tactics; and (4) economics-cost and return on investment. After addressing them you have to understand their business application. The author starts by stating "strategy should be the initial driving force behind the effort." The purpose of using the Internet is because it is the best possible option for developing relationships with vendors, suppliers, employees and customers. An example would be to "increase customer satisfaction through better customer service."
Moving on to needs/use, the author states that the "communications efforts must fulfill wants, needs and desires. Providing appropriate customer service information will fulfill the needs of a customer audience." You can see the author's intent of utilizing Internet technologies to build a CRM system. For step (3) the author states ". building a Web interface to appropriate databases of information is a tactic used as part of a strategy to better serve the audience's customer service needs." Finally, economics is considered the strongest force and will define the other forces. The author cites the following example: suppose increasing customer satisfaction is the strategy, but to do so would require building a database interface. Now suppose management instead opts for a cheaper static interface. The project will fail because no one will use it and it is hard to justify a project no one is using.
One disappointment was when the author admitted that he had utilized the school's IS department as part of his development strategy, thus admitting that he lacked technical expertise to develop the system he was using as an example (he works for a private college). A second disappointment was when he admitted that the school wouldn't fund a phase of the system he envisioned. Another disappointment was when the author claimed that email doesn't incur variable costs that vary with usage, just the fixed cost of setting up the system. Why is he wrong? Well, email uses up disk space. The more people who use the system, the more disk space is required, which means either larger disk drives or more disk drives. Also, email systems are not always self-administering. System administrators are needed to assign permissions to new users, grant new permissions to users as they move and gain different or new or additional responsibilities, and delete users from the system as they leave the company. Finally, an email system may not delete emails based on creation date, another task for system administrators. Still, the authors had some good ideas that I learned from. Strangely, the author doesn't have any screen captures to demonstrate his concepts. He doesn't even have example flowcharts when he calls for them. Instead he uses boxes that are written in and leaves empty boxes that you manually write in. An interesting characteristic of this book is that you can build your web site while reading the book. Just read a chapter, doing the labs as they come along (each chapter is subdivided into labs) and then implement what you just read.
Space considerations dictate that I cut this review off now. Do I recommend this book? Well, I have mixed feelings about it. Its very pragmatic, but short on content. I could see a person running into obstacles that the book doesn't cover. But the author does have a knack for getting straight to the point. Keep in mind that this is a textbook, which means that you're supposed to have a knowledgable instructor available to help you with questions. In the end I'd say shop around. If you can't find a better book, pick this one up. But you might be able to do better. Personally, I hate to drop something in the middle, and I am actually working on two Web sites, so I plan to apply what I can of the book before I look for another one. SC
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