Question 1:
Select a retail store with which you are familiar
that has a Web site on which it sells products or services similar to
those it sells in its physical retail stores.
Explore the Web site and examine it carefully for features that indicate
the level of services it provides. Using your experience in the
physical store and review of the Web site, write a 200 word evaluation
of the company's touch point consistency.
Answer:
In this task i've selected Guardian, it was the Pharmacy,
health and Beauty retail. I choose this company because it was one of my
favourite place, most of the things i want especially beauty products such as Make-up
(Maybelline, Silky girl which i like most =) ), beauty products, hair products
with variety brands to choose, its always available there with affordable
price. At the same time, they also provide/sell medicine and vitamins, First
Aid Kit Etc.I always go there mostly every month. About the payment, we can pay
it by cash or by credit card. What i see in their website, there is no big
different especially when they have the promotions with their stuffs. When i go
to their branch (when they have SALE ), they give the booklet/cataloge that
promote their selected items which they give discounts and special offer, and
what i see in their website, i also can see the same cataloge/booklet appear in
their promotions & events page. The price also state the same.They also
always make the update about what the new arrival/items in the website, not
forget also they provide the golden privilege card for their customers to sign
up, with this we can have discount with every items that we purchased. Guardian
also have many branches in Brunei Darussalam except in Temburong district,
there could be more than 10 branches in BSB District, 2 in Kuala Belait and 1
in Tutong. Guardian also having their tagline "The One You
Trust" which is i couldn't agree more, its already been proved that this
company stand strong not only in Brunei Darussalam but worlwide.
Question 2:
What were
the main forces that led to the commercialization of the Internet? Summarize
your answer in about 100 words.
Answer
:
The main forces that
led to the commercialization of the internet is by this it is more easy to
promote the items, more convinient, saving time that sometimes customers no
need to come to the shop, but they just can shop at home by looking and
searching the items by just clicking the website of the shop. In this task i
also doing the same Company to give an example (Guardian), from the website
they also can sell and promote their stuffs and items. They also can
purchase directly by using Credit card or Debit card, compare if we buy at
their shop theres no big different, other than we can pay by cash.Somehow, the
quality and the items also exactly the same that we can get from the shop, but
in the internet maybe theres no satisfaction because i don't think that in the
internet they not promoting (selling )100% stuffs/items that we can see and
touch in their shop.
Question 3:
Describe two possible service-for-fee offerings that might
become available to users of Internet-enabled wireless devices (such as iPad or
mobile phones) in the near future. Write one paragraph for each service in
which you outline the profit potential and risk of losses for each.
Answer :
BIBD ONLINE SERVICE
Bibd Online Service is the company which provides lots of
advantages to the customers as they can paying bills through the internet by
registering and login through the website that they created (Bibd.Com). From
there the customers can pay the selected bills we want to pay which the
company provides such as vehicles bills, water bills, electric bills Etc, from
this the customer can save their times and energy instead coming to the Bibd
Branch, we can just paid through online at home, at the office and anywhere by
using the laptops, handphones,ipads, ipods Etc as long as there is
internet connection. We can make the payment by using the credit card or debit
card. From here also we can check our financial account through the
website, how much left, how much dividen we get every month and from here also
we can know if our salary already bank in or not.The disadvantages is there is
lots of the customers outside there not the internet friendly. Also if there is
the problem with the internet connection and the customers cannot access the
website.
DST (COMMUNICATION SDN.BHD)
Provides mobile services for 2G, 2.5G and 3.5G in providing
Mobile Broadband in Brunei Darussalam. By this the users can access the
internet by using their handphone/Ipad/Laptop/Ipod. From this also they
providing more advantages to their customers where they can access the internet
and surfing through their favourite web such as Facebook, Tagged, Blogspot Etc.
From here also the users can get lots of info by googling, Wikipedia Etc. They
also providing others utilities, What i know we also can buy the top up of the
electric bill by sending the code of our account and the quantity (how much $)
we want then by sending the message to the selected code number that Dst
provide, and after we received the reply and they give the number of the
top up credit and the transaction is success, they will automatically deducted
the amount from our handphone credit. By this also we save our time and energy,
especially when we need it at the emergency time. The most problem that the
customers have to face is when the server and the internet connection is very
poor especially when it rains and not all area have the good
service/connections. What i know in my area if there is no electricity, the
server also going down and lost their connections. The possibility of this
company to lose their potential might be really low because here in Brunei
Darussalam theres not lots of competitors other than B-mobile Service. If they
just can ugrade and update the quality of the performance of the internet
access more faster than as usual that could give more benefits to their company
and their customers.
Question 4:
In two paragraphs, explain why a
customer-centric Web site design is so important, yet is so difficult to
accomplish.
Answer :
A customer-centric site
design is so important, yet it is so difficult to accomplish is because selling
the items in the internet having lots of competitors, for examples if we
selling the handphones, people will search others website pages such as in the
Bru-Direct, Facebook, Twitter Etc, they will compare the price, the quality and
the condition of the handphones, what they provide n includes (packages) if we
buy the handphone. It could be the new one or second hand handphones.Sometimes
the quality is not the same what we see in the picture, its could be look great
in the picture but we still don't know the condition inside, not impossible it
could have minor or major faulty.
There could be a
different when we doing it by direct selling, we already know the target whose
people we want to sell our products ( handphones), it could be our friends,
family, office mate, friends of our friends Etc.This business can be more easy,
we can compare, touch and see the items and directly can negotiate about the
price. We also can guarantee if the handphone having the faulty we can find the
person who is selling it and can make redemption and negotiate about it.
Question 5:
Promoting products on the Web is
different from using mass media promotion or personal contact. Assume that you
want to explain these differences to a person who is planning to open a Web
site that will sell fishing-rod. Write one paragraph about each approach (mass
media, personal contact, the Web). In each paragraph, explain the advantages
and disadvantages of the approach for the fishing rod Web business.
Answer :
Advantages and disadvantages of
the approach & promoting for the fishing rod Web business between :-
MASS MEDIA
I think this is the easy way to promote
the products, its been practically from long time ago (traditionally) such as
by by making the flyers, advert it at the newspapers or magazines. we just put
the picture of the fishing rod including the info about it and the price, hows
the condition, then if someone interested, they can contact us by leaving our
contact number at the advertise we make. Sometimes by this also we can hardly
achieve the target, sometimes not all people read the magazines nor the
newspaper, they just skip the advertise page, and not all people will stop to read
the flyers that we put at the advertise wall, just for a example at the
shopping comlpex.There is also many competitors who make the flyers and
advertise their products in the magazine nor in the newspaper.
PERSONAL CONTACT
I think promoting the products using personal contact is more
appropriate and easy because by this we can meet face to face and
promoting the products directly and explaining about the products ( fishing
rod), what the appropriate way how to use it and what the
compatible strings and fake baits we should use and what we should not use. We
also can negotiate about the price directly if the customers want to have the
discount perhaps. The disadvantages is maybe there is lots of the competitors
outside there selling the same products in lower price, so the customers will
make the comparation and will go for the lower price instead of the quality of
the products. Sometimes it is because of the location of the shop not in
the strategic area , the shop is too far for the customers to reach and
recognise about it.
THE WEB
Providing the products by using the website is more practical
and easier by using the web we ust can create Blogspot, Facebook, Tagged,
Twitter Etc. From this we can promote the products, we just upload the
pictures/images of the fishing rod, including the details about the fishing rod
and the most important things is state of the price, the condition of the
fishing rod whether it is brand new or used items.The customers can just inbox
or sent message if they interested and also can negotiate about the meetpoint
when and where. The disadvantages is not a big different between Promoting
through the Mass Media and through the personal contact, its all about the
competitors who is selling the same products if they have offered more special
price than we have.Sometimes lots of the customers not the internet friendly,
they more comfortable by just come directly to the shop.
