During a ‘Branding’ lecture that I facilitated yesterday, students – in small groups – were asked to critically examine an ecommerce website of their choosing, in terms of:
- Its features and functions.
- How engaging it is – and why its level of appeal/ engagement is what it is.
- The target audience that the site is attempting to appeal to.
- The user experience – site navigation, layers that need to be drilled-down into before pertinent information is uncovered, etc.
- How readily/ easily older people (55 years +) could use the site.
- How supportive/ reinforcing the site is of the business’s desired brand positioning.
It was interesting to see students pick-up on the importance of lifestyle images being included in ecommerce websites – to “humanise” the given site and to invoke a sense of connection with the viewer/ visitor.
When ecommerce websites started to become mainstream marketing platforms a few years ago, many businesses overlooked the importance of providing “people” imagery as a part of the content of these sites. Unfortunately, there are still many ecommerce sites that are devoid of “people” imagery…imagery that is necessary in order to invoke a high level of emotional response in (and connection with) viewers/ visitors. These sites have a “cold” feeling to them – and more often than not they portray the seller as being “pushy and only focused on wanting to push products”.
Most current day literature around online marketing talks about the desirability of “not” blatantly selling a product/ service – the days of the “hard-sell” have pretty much gone. Instead, marketers are concentrating on “story telling” – to create interest and cause a high level of customer connection/ involvement in the brand using emotionally-laden communication styles and imagery. The Air New Zealand advertisement featuring “Pete the Kiwi” is a good example of this new era of “story telling” rather than “blatant selling”. Selling now is based on gently “pulling” the customer towards the offering using creative communications – not “pushing” product at customers.
It is relatively easy to detect websites that have been designed by a programmer, versus a designer (marketing specialist). In my experience programmers tend to concentrate on the technical delivery (functionality) far more so than considering the overall site design from (most importantly) the user perspective.
I highly recommend to any business that is either currently operating an ecommerce website – or is looking to do so in the future – that they include “people” imagery (either still images and/ or video) as a part of the content of their site. People imagery coupled with product SKU’s causes stronger connections with viewers than simply presenting products on their own. People sell products…products don’t sell themselves – this truism is relevant for both bricks and mortar selling environments and where online selling is concerned.