Special Report - March 2004

Many deem the Dot.com era to be nothing more than an embarrassing scar on the great annals of American business history. Yet beneath the bad business models, stadium-sized egos and unchecked initial public offerings, the Dot.com era gave birth to a forgotten golden egg that was one click away from hatching. Today, this golden opportunity is commonly known as "Connecting With Customers", and a rising number of consumer goods firms are quickly realizing that one of the best places to make the connection is online.

Second Time Around
Dot.com era companies were virtually throwing money at online marketing initiatives with few metrics around the programs and there was little accountability. Today, companies are beginning to move back into online marketing, but using tools to ensure they're meeting their business objectives while keeping an eye on the bottom line.

"In a down economy, it's essential that companies get the most out of every marketing dollar," says Christopher Doran, vice president of marketing, Manticore Technology. Manticore helps companies to track, in real time, all the details of online marketing initiatives, including Web sites, e-mail campaigns and advertising programs.

"With this valuable information, consumer goods companies can ensure they're maximizing their online investments," says Doran.

On the surface, Manticore's mantra certainly makes sense, but does it offer any tangible value? It does if you're The Kellogg Company, who recently signed a multiyear contract to use Manticore's Virtual Traffic Master to manage and optimize its online marketing initiatives, including consumer e-mail campaigns and the company's extensive corporate and product-specific Internet sites such as Keebler.com and Frootloops.com. Virtual Traffic Master provides The Kellogg Company with detailed metrics describing the success of its online marketing programs.

Proof Positive for Pfizer
Research indicates that the average consumer spends more than 11 hours on the Internet per week, says Peter Krainik, chief marketing officer for DoubleClick, a provider of tools for advertisers, Web publishers and direct marketers. It's this type of compelling research that turned the tide for Carat Interactive, a global media agency that exclusively uses DoubleClick's ad management system, DART for Advertisers, on behalf of Pfizer Inc. to deliver, report on and measure its online marketing and advertising campaigns.

"Smart consumer goods companies that we work with have realized the importance of reaching their customers online," says Krainik. "As a result they have included the Internet, consumer data management, campaign management, Web analytics and e-mail as part of their multichannel marketing mix."

As the CG industry continues to face margin pressures and escalating customer requirements, expect to see increased use of online technologies to help companies get closer to their customers.

>Nothing Runs Like A Deere
The Corporate Brand Licensing Department at John Deere sells approximately 350 different promotional products through its consumer Web site, johndeeregifts.com. An expensive and outmoded system that maintained the site is now run by CORESense, a provider of multichannel sales software that allows the company to sell through multiple channels on a hosted basis. Since implementing CORESense in November 2002, sales from johndeeregifts.com have doubled and the company has been able to reduce monthly costs associated with the maintenance of the system by as much as 40 percent, resulting in a savings of more than $100,000. Through CORESense, johndeeregifts.com hopes to hook up with third-party Web sites such as Amazon, Yahoo! and eBay.

>Maytag Meets Demand
Maytag Appliances, a leading home and commercial appliance company, is using the Comergent Distributed E-Business System to power Maytag.com. The Maytag Web site enables the manufacturer and its retail partners to provide consumers with detailed product information and order fulfillment. "Through the power of our brand name, we are able to attract thousands of visitors to Maytag.com each month. With the Comergent solution, we are able to provide more value to these visitors by meeting their principal needs, including fast access to product information, real-time pricing and availability, and seamless fulfillment through our retail partners," says Ken Boyle, vice president and general manger of e-commerce at Maytag.

>Monster Cable Makes Intelligent Choice
A leading manufacturer of high performance cables that connect audio/video components, Monster Cable has significantly increased its online sales conversation rate with the help of Channel Intelligence. The service, called Channel Buy Links, sends online shoppers of Monster Cable's Web site straight to point-of-purchase pages of dealers. Monster says that Channel Buy Links has generated a 20 percent conversion rate from online sales leads, a 10-fold increase from the two percent conversion rate experienced earlier and far surpassing industry averages. To date, $2 million in dealer sales have resulted from use of Channel's lead transmittal service.