Nestle Makes Web Sites Consumer Driven – Finally
Congratulations to Nestle executives, who despite taking several years to do it, finally realized their Web sites needed to focus on the consumer, not on their own brands. As reported in Fast Company, June 2001, Nestle's Carnationmilk.com, Libbyspumpkin.com and other brand-centric Web sites offered little value to its customers and were doomed from the start. Executives huddled and muddled and returned to the Web with a strategy based on informing and helping consumers. Imagine, only 17,000 employees, input from AOL and Yahoo and several years were needed to figure out what I had been preaching since 1996.
Nestle earns my praise for two other critical issues, the use of its Web sites as consumer resources and the integration of its e-business efforts throughout the company.
1. "This investment is about developing credibility and building a relationship with consumers. It's not about whether hits translate into sales," says Becky Chao, e-business for confections and snacks. Their plan relies on informational Web sites to develop the positive attitudes about its brands that build loyalty and ongoing purchasing.
2. Instead of establishing separate e-business divisions, Nestle integrated e-business personnel into its existing divisions. This strategy embraces the Web as one part of the entire marketing program and promotes communication among brand managers and e-business personnel. Rather than confine its Web talent together, Nestle dispersed its tech-savvy people throughout the company.
It would have been unthinkable for marketers to cling to radio and scoff at the advent of TV. But that exemplifies the ignorance that plagued big business when the Internet gained widespread attention. If your target audience reads magazines, advertise in magazines. If your audience watches TV, advertise on TV. And if your audience migrates to the Internet, advertise on the Internet. Go where your audience goes. The bottom line is sales - not from where sales originate.