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Informative Articles

A Beginner's Checklist to Promoting an Online Business (Part 2)
This week we continue with Part 2 of our 3-part series on how to market your online business. Part 1 is available at http://onlinebusinessbasics.com/articles/checklist1.html . As much as we all love free stuff, an Internet business is still a...

Actually Working to Make Money on the Internet
There are many people out desperate for more money. Unfortunatly, most of them are desperate for a lot of money very fast. Thousands of internet sites prey on these people. In fact, these sites are around because their owners also...

DOES SEARCH ENGINE TRAFFIC MATTER?
The short answer is, "Sure." And it likely always will. But the amount of free traffic search engines now deliver to many small online businesses doesn't amount to much. And what there is of it continues to decline in importance. Pay-for- submission...

Evaulating Web Site Performance
Setting up a website is the very first step of an Internet marketing campaign, and the success or failure of your site depends greatly on how specifically you have defined your website goals. If you don't know what you want your site...

One of The Biggest And Deadliest Mistakes Affiliates Make Online And How "YOU" can Avoid Falling Into The Same Trap!
Being the affiliate marketing director for one of the nets most popular affiliate programs I tend to see just about every type of problem an affiliate could run into. One of the biggest problems if not THE biggest problem I see again and again is...

 
Case Study on adultshop.com

Marketing Case Study

(Extracted from How Asia Advertises by Jim Aitchison)
Applying A New Discipline

The Problem:

Adultshop.com is an online retailer of adult products. Its mission was to recognized as a global leader in adult product distribution. The challenge was to launch a completely new brand in a controversial category.

As the first publicly traded adult product company in Australia , Adultshop.com required investment support for its business model prior to international expansion. However, mainstream consumer, investor and media groups did not openly accept the category. The business was heavily biased towards males, the competition intense and cluttered, products were sold on price and promotion, and advertising was dominated by small space print ads.

The Strategy:

The client's marketing strategy targeted current user groups, hoping to build market share by focusing on promotional offers in the key product area of videos. It was assumed that advertising would run in adult magazines using sexually provocative images typical of the category.

The agency recommended pursuing an untapped market opportunity. While most people felt uncomfortable walking into a sex shop, it argued, the anonymity of the Internet and a user-friendly site would break down the barriers and encourage a broader audience to purchase adult products. Women, in particularly, had never been addressed by the category. In fact, Adultshop.com could create a new category by becoming the first adult company to directly target a mainstream audience and leverage the non-threatening online environment to create a brand with mainstream positioning. The Adultshop.com website would become a totally acceptable place to shop, and appeal to both men and women.

The question was, could an adult shop become a successful, credible mainstream brand simply by acting like one?
The Adultshop.com proposition was developed to appeal to all adults 18 – 49 years of age. The company was


restructured. Adultshop.com became the company's umbrella brand, user-friendly, non-pornographic website, able to command price premiums, drive innovation and build investor support. An unbranded subsidiary business serviced the heavy user group.




Brand identity began with a custom-designed signature font and a 3D animated logo. Humour replaced sexually explicit images. Adultshop.com print ads splashed witty text messages on distinctive purple backgrounds that intrigued rather than intimidated. Media placements broke new ground, blanketing city streets with supersites, transit shelter posters and bus ads. The open, fun tonality dispelled the negatives surrounding adult product marketing. Adultshop.com became the first brand in the category to have its advertising accepted by mainstream media.

As a result of broad consumer acceptance, Adultshop.com pioneered online shopping partnerships, site integration and content sharing. And while mainstream consumers embraced the campaign wit, a cult following carried the logo into tattoo shops. Brand building continued with nightclub sponsorships, event marketing, ambient media, radio, direct response ads and even in recruitment advertising.

The Result

Despite no pornographic content, Adultshop.com has become the number one adult site in Australia and one of the top 10 e-tailing sites in the country. 30% of all customers are females, vis-à-vis the 5% norm for the category. Female products outsell male products 2 to 1.

Banner click-through rates of 12% are five times the industry average.

The site has registered consistent sales revenue growth; a sale campaign generated 120% sales increase.

Following its launch, Adultshop.com became the best performing dot.com stock and is on target to turn a profit. International expansion is underway with lives sites in the US and Germany .

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