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IBS:
What are the key roles in the marketing team at wishlist.com.au?
Martin:
Sales & Marketing Director, Business Development Manager,
Site Managers (p & o responsibility for each site), online
marketing executive, marketing executive, PR executive
IBS:
How was the marketing team put together, what
personalities/traits/mix were you looking for?
Martin:
We were looking for intelligence, passion for e commerce,
enthusiasm, ability to cope with the turbulent ambiguous
environment we work in and marketing experience.
IBS:
What is the background of some of the individuals?
Martin:
We have three graduates with strong prior experience working in
other areas of wishlist.com.au
- 5 years
experience in sales & Marketing experience in a range of
other companies
- 5 years
experience in sales/marketing and management consulting
IBS:
What would you consider to be your major achievements?
Martin:
Building a great trusted brand, creating and maintaining it
through growth in a customer focused company culture
Of course
setting up important strategic relationships with a number of
online and offline partners, e.g. BP, Country Road
The
significant role Wishlist.com.au is playing in changing
Australian consumers behaviour to shop online
IBS:
What role does your marketing team play in setting the overall
business strategy?
Martin:
The marketing department has a large contribution, as do all
areas of wishlist, in setting the overall business strategy.
IBS:
Where do you concentrate your marketing efforts?
Martin:
Branding and customer acquisition.
IBS:
What advertising mix (TV/Print/Internet) do you use and what
stimulus do you have for altering this?
Martin:
Originally it was more above the line TV/Print, now moved more
to direct marketing, PR and strategic relationships such as BP
with the objective of lowering customer acquisition costs now
that we have created a brand. Online advertising has always
played a strong part also.
IBS:
How important is it to know who your competition is and do
you keep a watch over them?
Martin:
Reasonably important, but we find at this stage our business is
not that much affected by promotions our competitors run. As
established off line brands move more on line though this will
become more important.
We have
found that switching costs have been quite significant between
e-tailers. Some switching barriers are trust with security of
website, trust with fulfillment, and understanding of the site
navigation. These will diminish over time.
IBS:
How much emphasis do you place on search engine
placement/optimisation etc?
Martin:
We put some money behind this, but over time it is driving a
smaller proportion of total traffic to our site.
IBS:
What role do affiliates web sites play in your marketing
strategy?
Martin:
Affiliates are a good cost effective way to acquire traffic, but
overall it only drives a small amount of our traffic.
IBS:
What trends have you identified in the Australian Internet
market and where do see it going in the future?
Martin:
I think consumers will become more comfortable with shopping
online. The large offline companies such as David Jones and
Myers will come online. This will be helpful in giving more
credibility to shopping online
Large
international players such as Amazon are expected to come here
New
technologies such as broadband and WAP are exciting, but a
number of years away before any significant shopping is done
through them.
The main
value for customers will be created by capturing information
with permission and using this to personalise the customer
experience with the site. The eventual goal is to replicate the
old time shopping experience when the merchant knew your name,
your interests, and could recommend suitable products for you.
This got lost through mass marketing and distribution but the
internet gives us the opportunity to bring this back. The
direction that Amazon is moving in with their personalisation
and recommendations is very much the future. Being an occasion
focused web site we want to capture information about key events
in people lives, and market products and services to them based
around this.
IBS:
What advice can you give to businesses that are attempting to
establish themselves as a permanent player in this industry?
Martin:
Leverage your own or other offline brands
Keep
customer service and fulfillment in house. Control as much of
the customer experience as possible
We were
lucky in that being in early it was easier to build a brand as
there were few other e-tailers. It is now much harder for a
pureplay to build a brand. Do not underestimate how much
marketing resources are required to acquire customers.
Learn as
much as possible from the experiences of US and Australian
e-tailers.
Thrive in
ambiguity. There is no right answer at present, what is
important is being able to move quickly, learn, and move again.
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Wishlist
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