How does brand awareness development differ on the Internet from traditional methods?
WINDHAM: There are two perspectives, the tactical and the strategic. Regarding the tactical perspective, how do you build awareness of your brand? In the early days of the Web (maybe only one year ago), people believed that the way to attract customers to a site was by buying ads, buttons, and partnering with Yahoo, for example. They were thinking the best way to drive traffic to their sites was to speak to people that were already there, on the Web. Actually, the way to attract people to a site is to communicate to people they way you would when you want them to take any action (for example, with TV ads, direct mail, and ads on the sides of buses). Traditional ways of marketing to people are still the most effective at driving people to a Web site. There’s not a lot of difference between driving customers to a Web site versus to a retail store. We’re still in the experimental stage. This Christmas, eToys.com is reportedly spending $20 million on ads to drive traffic to its site. Every
