Website Planning of the World of Warcraft Company - Case Study Example

Website Planning Report Executive summary In the recent pasts, firms have embraced the need of marketing their products via online methods. For the online games companies, the use of latest technologies to virtual market their products is not an option in enhancing continuity of their businesses. As a result of this, the business has greatly expanded to cater for the increasing number of companies across the globe. For instance, online games markets across the world have increased by at least 85% and currently worth $ 4.2 Billion up from $2.6 Billion in 2006. As a marketing director of World of Warcraft Company, there is the need of developing the required web pages that will easily attract customers visiting the site of the firm to increase sales figures. It is worth noting that, World of Warcraft Company have vey many reasons for building a website to market their products to the targeted audiences, although there is the need of coming up with clear goals prior to developing the web page. To achieve the objectives such as increasing its physical shops to 130 from the current 65, there is the need of creating webpage trust, expectations, ease of shopping and marketing among other important aspects. World of Warcraft Company should have a creative web design and planning attracts many web visitors, which will influence on buying decision for the visitor. To develop competitive websites there is the need of segmenting the markets along geographical and psychological segmentations. Further, it is important to maintain a healthy home page in order to attract and retain potential customers. This is due to the fact that home page serves as the first page, which allows all visitors to have view of the site. Home page elements such as natural reading patterns, color, topography and the webpage schematics such as breadth and depth should carefully evaluated to attain the targeted objectives. In conclusion, In conclusion, World of Warcraft Company will invest in webpage upgrade or other forms of planning for them to be profitable in both the short and long run. Table of Contents Executive summary 1 Introduction 3 Target market for the World of Warcraft Company 4 Targeting profile information 4 Market segmentation 5 Geographical segmentation 6 Psychographic segmentation 6 Objectives for the World of Warcraft Company 6 Expectations 7 Trust 7 Ease of shopping 8 Marketing 8 Retaining potential customers 9 Selling the service or product 9 The main aim of any firm is selling its products or to the targeted audiences to raise the firm’s sales revenues, which in most case translate to more net income. Therefore, World of Warcraft website should attract the potential customers, especially those in the Asian and Euro-Asia Region. Based on this, there will be need of providing the customers with all what they may require, in an easy way and concise that do not overpower them with a lot of information. 9 Home page layout 9 Basic schematic for a home page 10 Branding and color palette guide 10 Natural reading patterns 11 Topography 12 Color 12 Images 12 Web page schematic 13 Conclusion 14 Work cited 15 Introduction As technological know increases, most firms across the globe adopted the contemporary marketing through the online methods. This has proved to be more profitable as it reduces the operational cost yet the number of customers who are able to get the intended message increase as compared to the offline methods of marketing. In the last five years, the number of firms, which use the online marketing method has increased by more than 60% and revenue generated by the marketing industries increased by over 40% (Garrett 22). Of all the sectors, game industry is one of the areas that highly utilize the online methods of marketing to reach to the targeted audiences. According to strategic Analysis Outlook for global online game market, it is estimated that online games markets across the globe has increased by 85% and is currently worth $ 4.2 Billion up from $2.6 Billion in 2006. Further, the group estimates that in the next five years online game markets will have tripled, thus becoming one of the leading revenue earners as far as online marketing activities are concerned. Hsu & Lu (1658) notes that, fast increasing massively multiplayer s online game markets, led by the World of Warcraft franchise by the blizzard Entertainment, are blazing the ways for digital distributions and electronic sell through of console and PC games. The paper will critically focus on method of marketing World of Warcraft Company through online method. Target market for the World of Warcraft Company As the marketing director of World of Warcraft online games company, I have realized that creative web design and planning attracts many web visitors, buts this does not cast a lot of influence on busying decision for the visitor. This is because, the website may fail to address target audiences. Brown (69) in order to attract more customers, especially in the Asian continent there is great need of analyzing on the needs of the targeted audiences as well as whom the website may be communicating. For World of Warcraft Company, there is need of recognizing that the main, the website is being created to attract visitors to know the services being offered by the firm. Therefore, it is the responsibility of World of Warcraft will be to ensure that the visitors understand what the website aims to convey. After establishing the likely group to visit the website, the online games companies should establish on type of customers who will read the contents as well as whether the sounds and graphics will be appreciated by the targeted audiences. Web designs, mainly those dealing with online sales, gains more momentum, if the site is interactive with the targeted customers. It is therefore for the games companies to conduct regular surveys or interviews with the targeted audiences to pick the required insights regarding the firm. Garrett (63) indicates that websites and their designs, content, font, style, color among other aspects focus on particular group of people, who are collectively referred to as the targeted audiences. For the online companies, it is crucial to realize the fact that not all customers can be targeted by the firm site hence the need to segment the market to fit a particular group of people (Hsu & Lu 1656). Targeting profile information By creating and maintaining healthy targeting profile information, it becomes easy for the online games company to understand, assess as well as share high quality profiles of the customers. This way World of Warcraft Company will be able to compile solid target profiles information, which is vital in ensuring the firms success and hence higher global reach. The firm will also be able accommodate the preferences of customers and impress them, thus more spending more time on site, eventually making purchases as well. The creation of targeted profile information, the website designers improves on overall marketing strategies as well as more focus on audience profiles. Through the customers profile the firm will be able to attract the decision makers, such as young teenagers and parents, who normally initiate purchases via online methods. It is worth noting that the success of online companies depends on the ability to gather information and on the way; the information regarding the targeted audience profile is represented on the website. Market segmentation For World of Warcraft Company, there is the need of understanding the needs of their customers depending on geographical, demographic, behavioral patterns among other notable elements found in customers. Market segmentation is the strategy adopted by a firm to divide its market into subsets of customers having common applications and needs for products or services on offer. By segmenting its market, the firm will establish the needs and wants of the customers, thus giving them improved services. Sena (89) argues that, online games companies, needs to indentify primary valuable of recognizing the needs, habits and attitudes of their customers. This is based on the fact that the success of online games companies depends on suitability of feedback, convenience of the operator, precision of information provided as well as involvement of the virtual communities. For instance, the online games highly differ from the previous computer games as users play with other human beings in virtual communities rather than community. The computer just acts as mediating tool, which connects others in cyber space. Gupta (59) defines virtual communities as computer-mediated space with potentials for the integration of member’s generated communication and content. Therefore, users of online games should thus solve problems together and interacting with other consumers in virtual community. Geographical segmentation This method segments and indentifies consumer preferences as well as habits across varied regions. For example, consumers who live in urban areas have the required knowhow and facilities to participate in virtual gaming activities as compared to those in rural areas. Further, World of Warcraft Company can separate their markets into different geographical areas such as American, African, and Asian among other notable forms of geographical segmentations. For instance in the year 2007, Blizzard reported approximately $ 1.2 Billion in revenues, with geographical segmentation (Hsu & Lu 1653). WOW was big part of this, because other games offered by Blizzard do not require subscriptions fees systems in these geographical regions as indicated by the table below. Region Monthly fee in US$ Number of subscribers Annual revenue in million US$ North America 13-15 2.5 390-450 Europe 15-20 2.0 360-480 (Sena 15) Psychographic segmentation Psychographic segmentation is a method where the market is divided on basis of their lifestyle habits and psychology. Chau (140) World of Warcraft Company requires to have deep understanding of psychology of customers as well as their needs, for them to accept the service offered by virtually. Further, online games companies such as Second life have established strong brand loyalty to the firm’s products thus resulting to more sales volumes globally. Objectives for the World of Warcraft Company As the internet-marketing director of World of Warcraft, I have come up with several objectives aimed at making World of Warcraft as an online game of choice of our customers across the globe 1) To increase the sales of World of Warcraft from the current 15% to 35% in the next fiver years. This will make the firm to have the highest market share across the globe. 2) To increase our physical shops from 60 to 130 in the next five years, 30 of which will be set in Asia and Euro Asia market, where the firm targets more sales as compared to any other region globally. 3) To a rise, the salaries of the employees by 25% in the next two years, to boost their working morale hence improved customer service to our online customers. To fulfill the above objectives of World of Warcraft online game company, there is a great need to critically look at the following the following aspects. Expectations Most of the customers and other stakeholders for World of Warcraft Company expect the firm to have a website, which address their needs as far as virtual games, are concerned. Presence of high quality websites adds credibility and absence detracts. As a result of this, World of Warcraft will therefore develop websites of high quality to improve on customer’s credibility a (Hemp 9). Trust Trust is one of the most important aspects to be considered when developing the elements of websites. Gupta (57) argues that 56% of online companies in the game industry have just been frauds, a factor that has reduced credibility of the online games companies. To avert this notion, it is prudent to come up with a trusted website where customers can easily access at any time regardless of their geographical locations. To achieve the desired trust levels, customer’s reviews and testimonials on the product and company will be availed on the website. The testimonials will include mixture of both good and bad customer reviews rather than just good reviews at it demonstrate honesty and fairness. Based on the above information, World of Warcraft website should have contact details such as phone, email, postal address, office address among other notable forms of contact. The other way of increasing trust is through product and content information (Brown, 56). Therefore World of Warcraft Company need of giving the desired content information is vital. For instance, it is important to not only give the price, but also a lot of information regarding game being sold by the firm. This will be informing of descriptions, pictures and user manuals. By keeping the website professional, concerned and concerned with customer’s welfare, then visitors will have positive views with the online game company, thus higher likely hood of working with the firm (Garrett 56). Ease of shopping It is worth noting that a World of Warcraft website should make it easier for the potential customers to buy what they are looking for. The capability to go to the online game website, easily specify basic criteria such as price, type of content among other parameters, and get matching properties is important in attracting and retaining customers. In most cases, it is not the online game company with the best price or product gets the sales, but those that makes it easy for potential customers to search quickly, find the desired products as well as make pay via the acceptable means such as MasterCard, visa, PayPal among others. Marketing The main objective of website for the online game companies is to market the firms’ products. In the last five years, the number of businesses being carried out on the internet has almost tripled as the number of people connected to broadband across the globe increase. By having, a well-maintained websites, customers are able to find the company, thus more sales in both the short and long run. For World of Warcraft, the firm should aim at getting higher rank in search engines such as Google, Yahoo among others as this enables potential customers to find the firm and products just by searching. Further, it should get related sites, which provide links to the customers visiting the other sites and advertising the company, through online and offline methods. Retaining potential customers By developing interesting websites, in terms of information and products, World of Warcraft Company, will be able to retain the customers visiting the site. This reduces the operational cost of the firm as it can focus other geographical zones, without the fear of loosing the existing customers. Selling the service or product The main aim of any firm is selling its products or to the targeted audiences to raise the firm’s sales revenues, which in most case translate to more net income. Therefore, World of Warcraft website should attract the potential customers, especially those in the Asian and Euro-Asia Region. Based on this, there will be need of providing the customers with all what they may require, in an easy way and concise that do not overpower them with a lot of information. Home page layout Gupta (80) argues that home page is the most crucial page of any given website. This is because it serves as the page, which allows all visitors to have view of the site. Poorly designed home page, destroys the chances of achieving the intended objectives of the site in a second. On the other hand, good home page serves as a blue print for all the successful websites. For World of Warcraft company there is need to set up key elements that are vital in closing a sale or generating an enquiry, depending on the primary and secondary firm’s objectives. If the website focuses on selling virtual games, there is need of launching straight into the main sales copies on the home page. If the website deals with a number of products or services, then there is the need of writing some copies for home page, which encourages the visitors upon clicking on the firm’s products or services. The diagram below briefly indicates a sketch of the basic elements on your homepage Basic schematic for a home page Branding and color palette guide To most of online marketers, there are vey many good reasons for building a website to brand their product and services to the targeted audiences. However, it is crucial for them to come up with clear goals prior to developing the web page. By developing the right objectives, marketers are able to drive the contents to the targeted audiences, thus more profitability levels. Gupta (55) there is the tendency of coming up with websites that fulfill the needs of the developers rather than addressing the needs of the customers Judging by majority of homepages containing little more than builders name, photographs, age, it is clear that they have not defined the appropriate objectives. Hsu & Lu (1657) indicates that, different websites have varied purposes such as selling the intended products or services or marketing ideas. To market World of Warcraft, it is appropriate for the website to address several objectives, thus resulting to increased sales volumes. After establishing the likely group to visit the website, the company will establish on type of customers who will read the contents as well as whether the sounds and graphics will be appreciated by the targeted audiences. Web designs, mainly those dealing with online sales, gains more momentum, if the site is interactive with the targeted customers. It is therefore for the games companies to conduct regular surveys or interviews with the targeted audiences to pick the required insights regarding the firm. Garrett (63) indicates that websites and their designs, content, font, style, color among other aspects focus on particular group of people, who are collectively referred to as the targeted audiences. For the online companies, it is crucial to realize the fact that not all customers can be targeted by the firm site hence the need to segment the market to fit a particular group of people (Hsu & Lu 1656). For effective branding, the homepage for World of Warcraft Company, there will need of paying special attentions to some of critical elements of branding and color palettes as indicated below Natural reading patterns Since World of Warcraft does not intend to sell its products in distinct foreign countries, at least 80% of potential customers read from left to right as well as from top to bottom. To be specific, customers scans in F- shaped patterns, taking in headline, then stuff along left of page, then edge and some of first words along left margins. Therefore World of Warcraft company should placing their headline on right side is not usually the best option for the companies (Sena 70). Topography It is worth noting that typography is not just choosing the required font. Chau (139) argues that topography is science of presenting written information in most readable and useful ways. Website design is 96% topography, therefore need of paying attention in this area. Choosing best measures, color, and leading, font-size as well as heading styles is thus important. Color The use of color is not highly important although the use of color dramatically change priority of the elements in web design. On black and white page, large headline highly stands out against the normal texts. Therefore, online games companies should select colors that are appropriate, combined in palettes that are interesting but not varied. Using these elements customers attention is drawn and guiding them to the firms objectives(Hemp 7).. Images Like the aspect of color, image is one of the most important elements in web design. To attract attention of customers, online games companies should place, hero shots should de well positioned on home page, with hero’s eyes looking at most important elements. This is due to the fact that people looks at the place where others are looking at. Not all other supplementary images in the home page should be colorful or large to prevent distracting readers from the main objectives. Gupta (33) also argues that many negative spaces between the webpage and the eyes of the customers may get them bored, thus failing to meet the required objective. Generally, the home page is most important page of most important element of online games companies and gets more views as compared to other pages in their sites. Customer’s follows links from the search engines such as Yahoo, Google among other notable websites that reach down the companies sites. Therefore, there is the need of deep linking to other sites such as Face book, Twitter, video and other links to enable the home page to have stronger usability guidelines. Web page schematic Webpage schematic or website wireframe or screen blue print refers to the visual guide, which represents skeletal framework of any given website. The framework depicts page layout or the arrangement of contents of the websites that includes navigation elements and interface elements. The framework lacks color, topography style, graphics, since focus of any online game company lies on the behaviour, functionary as well as the priority of the contents being displayed to potential customers. For most of online games companies, the web page schematics includes type of information, available functions, relative priorities of functions and information’s as well as effects of varied scenarios that are on display. Gupta (102) says that wireframe connects underlying information architecture or conceptual structures of visual design of website. For online games companies, wireframe establishes functionalities as well as relationship between various screen templates of their websites. Interactive processes, creation of wireframes is effective ways of taking fast prototypes at the same time measuring practicability of the firms design concepts. Generally, there is the use high fidelity webpage schematic mostly used in documenting as it incorporates level of detail closely related to actual WebPages. Further, World of Warcraft company will employ a modern devices such as hover effects, expanding panels and carousels, which highly challengers the two dimensional diagrams on their websites. When developing the Webpage schematics for World of Warcraft company, a lot of focus will be on aspects of width and depth of their websites. To most of the companies, they have adopted either the fixed or the flexible width web pages. In fixed width, the width of web page is at specified numbers thus independent of size of browser. On the other hand, flexible width is whereby the width of a page varies depending on width of browsers window. This allows the firm to design the pages depending on the needs of the customers. It will also be advisable for World of Warcraft company to create websites having the required depth in design. This creates, sense of realism among other forms of unique feelings to the customer visiting the sites for shopping purposes. Conclusion From the above, it is now clear that web page planning is one of the most important aspects for any online games company. For instance, by establishing an attractive and interactive website, World of Warcraft Company will be able to achieve its objectives, thus increase sales volume especially in Asia and American markets. This way, the firm will be able to compete accordingly with other global companies thus win more trophies besides the best design award for Best Mac OS ( Operating system) X game ( WOW: BC) in year 2007 among other notable awards. By properly designing a good website, World of Warcraft company website, will be able to participate effectively in virtual marketing activities, hence make more sales as compared to competitors, who fail to make the required web planning. In conclusion, World of Warcraft Company will invest in webpage upgrade or other forms of planning for them to be profitable in both the short and long run (Wodtke and Govella 67). Work cited Brown, Dan. Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning, Second Edition. London: New Riders, 2011. Print. Chau, Cole. Cultural differences in the online behaviour of consumer. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 45(10), 2002, pp. 138-143. print. Garrett, James. The Elements of User Experience: User-Cantered Design for the Web and Beyond. New Riders, 2010. Print. Gupta, Sunil. Managing Customers as Investments: The Strategic Value of Customers in the end. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education/Wharton School Publishing, 2005. Print. Hemp, P. Avatar-based marketing.Harvard Business Review, June 2006, pp. 1-9. Print. Hsu, CL, & Lu, HP. Consumer behaviour in online game communities: A motivational factor perspective. Computers in Human Behaviour, Vol. 23(3), pp. 1642-1659.Print. Sena, Peter .MarketingProfs: Blueprint for Online Success: Understanding the Fundamentals of Web Site Design. New York: Sage Wodtke, Christina and Govella, Austin . Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web. London: Rutledge, Print. Read More