CASTING A BROAD 'NET:

Can companies cash in on the popularity of the world wide web?

 

In just the last two years, the World Wide Web-the user-friendly, graphics-based subset of the Internet-has swept even computer novices and technophobes into cyberspace. The Web attracts millions of users per day and is expanding by the hour. In the Web's early years after its invention in 1989, it was largely populated by college computer science departments. Now businesses, drawn by the large numbers of potential consumers like sharks to schools of fish, are becoming a big part of the Web.

But will tried-and-true marketing and sales techniques work in this new world? People use the Web very differently than they do television or radio; ads are easily ignored. The Web and the Internet itself are so new that even basic questions, like what products and services will sell electronically, are still unanswered. In this uncertain environment, can businesses turn a profit? Should they even try? A recent workshop, sponsored jointly by N.U.'s College of Business Administration and the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, brought industry and academia together to discuss the fundamental questions of Internet marketing.

Fareena Sultan, associate professor of marketing at the CBA, cochaired the workshop, titled "Envisioning the Future of Internet Marketing," with Sloan School dean Glen Urban. They invited representatives from a broad range of businesses-Eastman Kodak, Federal Express, General Motors, Levi Strauss, Mastercard International, Netscape Communications, Toshiba, and the Washington Post Company, among others-and nine other academics, including N.U. marketing professor Fred Wiseman and assistant professor Bruce Clark. About thirty people attended the two-day workshop, held at MIT in September.

The workshop was devised so that companies with an existing major presence on the Web could define the key questions of Internet marketing, thereby allowing business researchers to focus their efforts, Sultan says. "The Internet clearly needs to be studied more systematically so the academic community is in time with the reality of the business world," she says.

The workshop began with brief presentations on the nature of the Internet, with questions like "How can the Internet become as easy to use as a toaster?" and "Is it a flash in the pan?" By the end of the discussions, participants had pinpointed several crucial topics that need to be understood before Web marketing is likely to be a success:

Workshop participants identified several existing Web sites that have achieved some level of customization for consumers. Some of these sites use so-called agent computer programs to search the Internet on behalf of an individual consumer. Bargainfinder, for example, reviews several music Web sites for the lowest-priced compact disks that match each user's individual preferences. Bargainfinder is one of several trailblazing Web sites listed on and linked through the workshop's own Web site, <www.cba.neu. edu/workshop/mit-neu>.

Other Web sites cited in the workshop's on-line "gallery" create value for users by offering vast amounts of expert information. One such site, Virtual Vineyards, offers in-depth advice on choosing wines, in addition to its selection of wines for sale electronically. Still other Web sites singled out by the workshop attendees create value by offering comprehensive and timely product selection. Amazon Books, which bills itself as the world's largest bookstore, provides extensive searching capabilities to help buyers navigate through its virtual stacks.

After the workshop, the marketing professors and company representatives began matching up to tackle the questions they had identified. Sultan is already formulating follow-up activities. In a sense, the initial workshop is ongoing; the participants have continued their discussions in a private on-line chat room. Sultan plans to present the workshop's initial findings at a conference at the University of California, Berkeley in March. She may be joined by a panel of the workshop attendees.

Sultan's own research for the last year explores how consumers use the Internet. She has been tracking a group of consumers, probing their use, perception, and awareness of the Internet and the Web through telephone interviews and mail surveys. When the study is completed, she hopes to be able to explain Internet consumers' behavior.

Despite the Web's burgeoning, Sultan cautions that realization of the Internet's potential for company marketing and consumer shopping may still be years off. Many people are still unaccustomed to the Web. Consumer acceptance of Internet commerce may have to wait until today's children grow up. "They don't have a fear of technology," she says. "When that generation reaches our age, they may be very comfortable with the Internet."

In addition, technical obstacles remain. As user-friendly as the Web is, it may not be friendly enough to become the medium of choice for shopping and commercial transactions. Already some of the business world's initial enthusiasm for the Web has started to wane. "People are trying to get their arms around it. There is a notion it should be two clicks to glory," Sultan says. "But, for now, there are a lot of steps. Often it takes such a long time to download or access sites that unless it becomes easier and quicker, the [Web] phenomenon might taper down."

Her own view of the Internet's commercial future is cautiously optimistic, but at the same time realistic. "This is a many-to-many medium-many people talking at the same time. That makes it a more exciting medium," she says. "But it will be a long time before many people buy a pair of jeans on the Internet."

Allison Perkins is a junior majoring in journalism at Northeastern.