e - A d v e n t u r e

In today's current market, almost each person has a web site of some kind. However, most companies fight to see any real business development from their site. The truth is, no matter how well structured your web site is, it is not triumphant until it is found by the target market. Millions of buyers are using Internet search engines to find products and services every day, not only having an attractive website, but also a web presence that converts into sales for the organisation. Below are some considerations for proper and effective web designs

Website content
• What is new, section to direct users, to up to date information, and attention grabbers
• Last opted in trailer which would assist the user in checking for recent changes
• Added value; order of information in a way that would appeal to the users
• Collection of data so that way the web site could be used as a reference.
• Logical – “Divide site into categories, label pages, most sites need multi-level navigation, plan accordingly.” This is important as it gives an easy layout so that visitors can easily identify the data and find the right category. It also allows the designer to have different sections for different data also meaning it easier to add on new information.


Page layout
• Consistency; same look or feel throughout all the web pages which would be based on template, author contact information date and copyrights if any
• Familiarity; logo at the top left hand site and a link to the homepage, also the colour text and scheme should relate to the companies norms that is consistent with other media
• Accessibility and legibility; users may have sight issues, enlarged fonts, will colour blindness be a disadvantage to some users, the content must be easy to read, use of plain common fonts and also avoiding patterned background to text.
• Ease of access – “Multiple routes, so the user has alternative ways to get to the data.” This allows the user to easily move through the site, finding the best way to access the desired data and makes it easier to use for all users.




Navigations and design consideration
• Logical; divide the site into different categories and well labelled and structured pages
• Ease of access; allow the use of multiple access routes so users can have alternative ways to get data and also share information, finally and most importantly return users to the access point when they are finished
• Images – “Remove unnecessary images, reduce file size – crop to subject, lower colour count, and use compression.” This involves making images the right size relevant to the information, only have images that are necessary and add to the website.


Download speed
• Most users are not as patient and normally it is thought that they will move on should a page take longer than some seconds so down load speeds should be considered.

Images
This is the most essential part as the saying goes “a picture says a thousand words” during the creation of web or in its infancy unnecessary images should be removed, reduction of file size, crop to subject, lower count the use of compressions with(jpg) speed rendering by specifying some of the attributes. Alternatives to images – “Replace text images by text with a coloured background.” This adds more colour on a website, however, using colour needs to be done carefully and only certain colours used that add to the appeal of the website design.
http://eis.bris.ac.uk/~cckhrb/webdev/design/factor.htm


REFERENCES
http;//eis.bris.ac.uk/~cckhrb/webdev/design/factor.htm retrieved 03-04-2010 23;5
http;//www.thecxogroup.com/intro-website-strategies-design-development.htm
Baron, K. (2009). WEBSITE DESIGN FACTORS. Available: http://eis.bris.ac.uk/~cckhrb/webdev/design/factor.htm
Last accessed 05/04/2010.
(2010). Online Tools for small businesses. Available: http://southafrica.smetoolkit.org/sa/en/content/en/4813/Online-Tools-for-small-businesses
Last accessed 05/04/2010

Trust is a key aspect for an organisation to have, if a customer has trust in an organisation, they are more likely to buy products from them, and tell friends that the company is good and can be trusted, thus resulting in the companies reputation increasing. “Social scientists from across fields have theoretically and empirically shown the positive effects of trust. For instance, trust has been associated with institutional efficiency and economic growth ([Putnam et al., 1993], [La Porta et al., 1997] and [Zak and Knack, 2001]). But in order to be profitable, trust has to be rewarded. According to Tullberg (2008), the degree of trustworthiness is the central factor for whether trust increases or decreases.” (Bonein, A, Serra, D(2009) : Gender pairing bias in trustworthiness). However trust have been defined by Mayer et al as the willingness to be venerable to the actions of another party with the expectation that the party performs an action which is important to the person. However this view of trust gives room for critism because the willingness to take a risk for something that is important to a person does not always means trust. This risk could be a result of variety of reasons. E.g. A customer goes to a shop for the first time and when is time to pay, they ask for her bank details, she gives it because that is what everyone is doing not because she is willing to take the risk.

However, Trust worthiness is concerned with the perception of customers towards a company and its employees in the process of service delivery. Trustworthiness directly examines the processes linked with the service delivery of employees and the evaluation of management practices. The conceptual foundations of trustworthiness are based on three parallel elements.
1. Operational competence: Has to do with the ability of employees and management in executing the service. Its takes into accounts expertise and knowledge shown by employees during service delivery.

2. Operational benevolence: Pertains to the service provider’s ability to place the consumer interest first above that of the company, through employee reaction or company policies.

3. Problem solving orientation: has to do with the ability of service provider to anticipate and resolve consumer problems during and after service exchange.

This shows the importance of trust an organisation possesses, as it leads to positive affects, and trustworthiness follows on from trust, if you can trust a company, they then build up trustworthiness over time, trustworthiness is one of the most important aspects for a company to have from its customers. The level of trustworthiness directly affects the amount of trust a customer will have in a particular company, if something negative happens this affects the customers trust in the company and can affect the company as a result e.g. Amazon not delivering a product in the scheduled time, if they consistently fail to deliver the product then the customers will start to lose the confidence they have in Amazon, therefore leading their integrity safer. According to Morgan and Hunt integrity is directly linked to trust.
Some organisations confuse things like repurchasing and think if a consumer buys again then they trust the organisation. This however is not always the case as consumers have to have confidence in the organization and that can be built as the company proved to be reliable and has integrity. Morgan and Hunt.
Trustworthiness can take two dimensions. One is trustworthiness towards the employees while the second is trustworthiness towards the company. A consumer does not have to have the same level of trustworthiness towards the company and its employees as they are mutually exclusive. A consumer might posses a high level of trustworthiness towards employees as a result of the speed and courteous manner in which they deliver their services. On the other hand the customer may have a low level of trustworthiness towards the company due loop holes it sees in its business process which hinders/ limits its employees from making prompt decisions during service delivery.

Company trustworthiness
Consider:
• The critical customer
• interactions with management policies,
• procedures (i.e. an automated telephone call)
• competence,
• benevolence and problem
• solving ability


Employee trustworthiness
Consider:
• The customers critical
• interactions with employees(i.e. at the point of service delivery)
• that build/deplete
• competence,
• benevolence and
In building trust an organization must be reliable and be able to give the consumer what they want. This might mean talking in a language they understand (Disney) rather than corporate talk, relate to an individual at a personal level, what they want, there problems and they are more likely to respond and be willing to engage in the company’s message and trust them more. Secondly the idea to get customers engaging in the company’s product, if they talk about the product they will begin to build up an affinity to the product, a level of trust will develop between them and other consumers with your product being talked about. Bernoff, J, Blogs, Marketing And Trust( 2009)
Many scholars both in the past and recent times have attempted to differentiate the terms trust and trustworthiness in an organisation. In this context, the need for both trust and trust worthiness in an organisation is vital as it enables employees to work together and effectively to be able to meet up with organisations goals as well meeting the requirements of its stakeholders as current trends in the workforce composition is the increase in diversity which involves people from different backgrounds working closely.
One of the major difficulties that have hindered previous research has been a lack of clear differentiation among factors that contributes to trust and its outcomes (Cook & Wall, 1980; Kee & Knox, 1970). Without this clear distinction the difference between trust and trustworthiness would be vague and cannot be fully comprehended by a reader.
The clear distinction between trust and trustworthiness provides a basis that associates people’s general perceptions of a system, organisation, government or even services rendered with their behavioural attitude (2009). The term trustworthiness refers to the “properties through which a trusted entity (whether another person or an institution) serves the interests of the truster, whereas trust reflects the truster’s beliefs, or perceptions, of the entity’s trustworthiness (Chrisanthi et al 2009).
Another difference between these two terminologies is that trustworthiness relies on the cognitive and emotional capacity that individuals bring to bear on their experience of a service, on indicators used to describe aspects of trustworthiness, or on informants, such as the media whilst Trust is the willingness of citizens to rely on a service depends on their judgment or the “willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based n the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party” (Mayer & Davies 1995)

References
Mayer, Roger C; Davis, James H; Schoorman, F David An integration model of organizational trust
Academy of Management. The Academy of Management Review; Jul 1995; 20, 3; ABI/INFORM Global
pg. 709
Avgerou, Chrisanthi; Ganzaroli, Andrea; Poulymenakou, Angeliki; Reinhard, Nicolau. Information Technology for Development, 2009, Vol. 15 Issue 2, p133-148, 16p, 1 color; DOI: 10.1002/itdj.20120; (AN 37351958)

The internet is seen as the solution to the global connectivity needs of man, due to this the world has shrunk and the technological advancements in the internet has created what is now known as a global culture and has altered individuals perspective on religion, values , politics, individual behaviour, and how human needs are satisfied. The internet culture has raised awareness to new levels which has led to cultural, educational and psychological revolutions bringing about a collapse in old age traditions. Creativity is at its apex as people can share ideas and go into joint creative ventures.


Addiction
Internet addiction disorder refers to the problematic use of the Internet, including the various aspects of its technology, such as electronic mail (e-mail) and the World Wide Web. You should note that Internet addiction disorder is not listed in the mental health professionals handbook, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, text revision (2000), which is also called the DSM. Internet addiction has, however, been formally recognized as a disorder by the American Psychological Association.
In some respect people who are addicted use other so called behaviours like shopping excessive gambling ECT. People who get this disorder usually start of using the internet on a normal base.


New Technology
As new technologies are designed and new computers are introduce the older generation is slowly faded out to what these things really do. Though South Korea Boast of having the fastest internet connection, it has the task of organizing camps for it next generation who are addicted to the web. According to the Youth counseling institute of Korea, about 14.4% of Korea’s school children show signs of internet addiction. However, the development of new technology is hampering the new generation from gaining full control on their language and also their ability to do physical activities. Children today have a much distorted view of the world because they spend more time on the web than actually in the world.




The Way we Think
Before the web there was far more information for as to absorb and search to gain some knowledge that we need. However, with the internet today, a good search engine can give any person the knowledge of anything they want by the click of some bottoms. However, because of the abundance of the knowledge and how accessible it is, it has made it not important to have knowledge because all the information is available on the web. (Larry Sanger) this has also shaped the way we think, as the newer generation is not as keen to gain knowledge as this generation is. This type of thinking is also restrictive as in the past, there were many information that if you wanted you would have to go to the local library to find. The idea of going to the local library to find information is one that would be laugh at now because we think differently. For a young child today looking at them in the eyes is an unconfortable moment because they are too used to communicating through the web that that their way of think is not through face to face.


The Ability of the Web to connect people
With the internet everything seem to have come closer, and the fact that the web has no boundaries means that it can connect people on all parts of the world. While many do argue that the web isolate people, Barry Wellman of Toronto University stated that the web was actually helping people stay in contact and maintain their communities through emails and instant messaging. John Harrigan from the Paw Associated Press also found that people who contact their close friends or relatives at least once a week on the web are 25 percent likely to have a landline contact of them as well. Therefore, concluding that they make face to face contact as well as web contact.

It is true across all diverse industries that in order to stay competitive, organizations must be able to utilize the various tools that technology has to offer. Technological factors have been of growing importance, particularly in recent years and a major factor involved in these technology issues is the use of the Internet, the arrival of mobile technologies such as PDAs and 3G mobile phones, the World Wide Web as well as interactive television which has now given many businesses access to the mass market at an affordable price.
the basics of marketing is still the same, which creates a strategy to deliver the right messages to the right people, what has changed is the number of options that is now available.

The traditional marketing methods, such as advertising, direct mail and PR has now been revolutionized with e-marketing which adds a whole new element to the marketing mix and many businesses are producing great results with e-marketing and its flexible and cost-effective nature makes it particularly suitable for small businesses.


E marketing can simply as be defined as achieving marketing objectives through use of electronic communications technology Chaffey (2006). The potential market that the Internet provides has little or no restrictions by either geography or time, and therefore poses a huge impact on any organisation considering E- marketing in its strategic marketing formulation. Specific benefits of e-marketing include;
• 24-hour marketing – Customers are able to access your products any time of the day even after office hours and with a good website, enquires can be left and contacts with the relevant department can be made during official hours.
• Trackable, measurable results - marketing by email or banner advertising makes it easier to know how effective your campaign has been. It also enables detailed information about customers' responses to your advertising.


Together, all of these aspects of e-marketing have the potential to add up to more sales. An example of a case study of a successful business that employed the use of e marketing as a medium of marketing and advertising is The SAK.
THE SAK’s biggest marketing challenge was time. In the fashion accessory industry, trends change overnight, and direct mail marketing campaigns take six to eight weeks to create and deliver to customers.
After researching countless marketing strategies, they decided on email marketing strategy because of its features which includes, ease-of-use, immediate download, and cost and the software’s personalization features
According to Steve(Director of e-commerce), “email marketing (with Campaign software) lets us put the right product in front of the right customer at the right time. Few other methods of communication exist that give us the ability to communicate with our customers at a very low cost, delivering an immediate impact to both customer satisfaction and company revenues.”

Campaign enabled THE SAK to reach its customers more quickly and with less expense than other marketing channels. Steve Henderson stated, “We are able to design, produce, and send out an email within just a few hours, and Campaign has given us the ability to maintain a high speed-to-market with zero sacrifice on quality of message, creative, or service standards. Email marketing has been extremely successful for us in introducing new products to our customers, moving inventory, and introducing our lifestyle brand. “also, “roughly 25% of our total annual online sales are driven directly by email marketing sent through Campaign Enterprise. This produces our single most positive return on investment.”


There are, however many views that Internet advertising will not gain distinctive popularity because of the difficulty in assessing it effectiveness (Ottman, 1996 cited Johns, R.,). While Strauss, J. Frost, R. (1999) believes that advertising on the Internet helps reach its revenue objectives, Johns, R. (1996) suggests that Internet advertising is full of clutter, and therefore proves difficult to gain the attention of the target market.

At e adventure your opinion is the adventure, so leave a comment.


we would like to know your

Various opinions exist on whether mobile phones will replace laptops. The view that this blog is taking is to disagree and state that mobile phones will not replace computers. However, if interested in reading blogs on people who believe mobile phones will replace laptops, these two websites are a good source, http://ivoras.sharanet.org/blog/tree/2009-11-13.id-like-my-cell-phone-to-replace-my-laptop!.html and in particular this second blog, with an interesting example citing the Blackberry phone as evidence that mobile phones are going to replace computers http://t1rex.blogspot.com/2009/01/will-cell-phones-replace-laptop.html.
The idea that mobile phones will one day replace computers is not likely in reality, as for a mobile phone to be able to hold the processing power to run internet connection along with holding big word document files and using Microsoft Word on a mobile phone is complicated and not as easy to use as a computer. Also mobile phones easily lose signal meaning connection to the internet is by no means certain unlike with a computer connection which is more reliable. While the screen size of a mobile phone is small and often requires scrolling up and down and side to side when reading internet articles, a laptop or computer is much easier to read as the screen is larger. The mobile phone is undoubtedly becoming more accessible for work and leisure activities; however, it’s still a long way from replacing computers, as the laptop can hold more memory than mobile phones, easily useable word documents for work and access to the internet while also being portable. Mobile phones may replace standard computers that are fixed in one location, but the laptop will continue to be ahead of the mobile phone as it can do all the things a mobile phone can and with more options and memory at present. The idea that mobile phones will improve can be seen from the past decade with vast improvements in the technology, however, computers and laptops have also evolved, and the time when mobile phones replace computers/laptops altogether is still a distant vision. It could also be argued that the computer is taking over the mobile phone rather than the other way around, as mobile phones have incorporated computer technology, without computer technology existing, mobile phones would not be able to evolve in the way they have, this is an interesting viewpoint which has room for further discussion. The sentiments that mobile phones are not likely to replace computers is supported by ‘Li Tao from Microsoft Windows Mobile Product Planning’, who believes for mobile phones to replace computers five factors have to fall into place and this is very unlikely to happen particularly in the immediate future. The five aspects that need to be addressed are:
1. The small display limits the user scenarios and experiences.
2. The cost and speed of wireless broadband data access has to approach that of landline access.
3. Ecosystem of appliances, services and content have to satisfy basic needs of core groups.
4. The breakthrough of battery life and power management innovations.
5. Are consumer habits and behaviours ready to compute on mobile phones?
These five points help support the view that mobile phones are not going to make computers obsolete, several issues exist which currently prevent mobile phones replacing computers. To conclude mobile phones won’t replace computers as mentioned earlier in the article, computers have been able to evolve at the same time as mobile phones, it’s not a one way process, and until the mobile phone has no issues, such as processing power and a good keyboard for typing in Microsoft Word and the storage capacity to keep big files for work or gaming, the computer will always be needed.

E Adventure has authors including, Ibiyemi Osoba, Agwuegegbo Ifeanyi, Kwaku Osei-Boateng and Tom Skelton
E Adventure is a blog set up by four master’s students who come from different parts of the world, who are studying Marketing in Coventry University in the West Midlands of the United Kingdom. This blog will be giving an opportunity for discussions and analysis through E marketing. Therefore, finding peoples view together with ours in a globalising world through E marketing.

There will be frequent topics updates about various business areas especially the marketing sector and you have the opportunity to add your views on what you think on the subject. There will be a new topic every week. There will be information from reliable sources places with their references.

The authors of this blog are of different cultural back grounds and academic background in terms of their first degree. This will be making each of us bring a different view on issues that we will be discussed. This will make the content of this blog very broad.
This blog will be available to many so please do not put any information that you feel are very personal in nature or any information that would be disrespectful to other users.
This blog is the view of the students and not Coventry University.

Thank you for using our blog, hope you enjoyed it