6. The supplementary reading provided for you emphasizes the importance of keeping "The Human Touch" on the web and gives several examples of web sites that do this well. Locate a web site that "humanizes" its communications as explained in the reading, and one that does a poor job of relating to its prospects and customers as human beings. Describe each site and contrast the "humanizing" site with the one that does not relate well to people.

The Human Touch In his novel Microserfs, Douglas Coupland spins a "techy tale" through the narration of Dan, an ex-Microsoft programmer. As the book progresses, Dan embarks on both a garage-based start-up venture in Silicon Valley and a search for meaning in his personal life. Dan's geeky friends ponder whether they really need any "face time" with actual humans, meanwhile "coding" (computer programming) each day and night to the point of exhaustion. When engaged in a coding marathon, these digital warriors often eat only "flat food" (Pop Tarts, wrapped cheese slices and the like) pushed under the doors of their offices by fellow workers. While readers at first may despair for these obsessed and robot-like young people, Coupland ultimately offers a very positive message about the online world and its potential for facilitating human interaction. First, one of Dan's most introverted friends meets his soulmate through extensive online conversations. Knowing nothing about the other person's age, gender, nationality or color, Dan's friend declares his love for the chat pal based on intellectual and spiritual connection alone. At Coupland's rather Dickensian behest, the soulmate turns out to be an attractive, single female of similar age to Dan's friend. Then in a truly touching and more unexpected passage, Dan's mother - suddenly incapacitated by illness and unable to speak - finds a way to communicate digitally thanks to the efforts of Dan's own tech-savvy love interest (whom the mother had previously disdained). Like Douglas Coupland, many philosophers and pundits have wrestled with the pros and cons of the Internet lifestyle. Naysayers argue that the Internet fosters isolation and anonymity. Marriages are broken and children are neglected by parents finding illicit romance via social media and chat rooms. Teenagers are lured into face-to-face meetings with predators. Online gambling and pornography can lead lonely individuals into a destructive downward spiral. And even the community-building aspects of the Internet can be used negatively as individuals with anti-social or terrorist tendencies find kindred spirits online to encourage them and escalate their intentions. While all of this may be true in certain cases, the Internet also offers an inexpensive, universal way for far-flung families and friends to engage in warm, cozy communication. The ever-growing number of family, wedding and new baby Web sites makes a positive argument for the Web's potential in connecting people. What's more, today's parents enjoy hearing much more regularly from their college-age and young adult offspring than they have in the past via Skype, Facetime, Instant Messaging and e-mail. As one mother reports, "When I see both of my sons pop up on Instant Messaging or Skype each day, I know they're alive and well even if we don't talk. It's very comforting, and it keeps me from intruding too often on their busy lives with check-up phone calls." Like all other communication media, the Internet indeed offers potential for both positive and negative interactions and outcomes. What's more, because of the absorbing, personal and interactive nature of the 'Net, these effects may well be magnified as compared to print, movies or television. As marketers explore this still-young medium, representation of a person's image in cyberspace that could be used to depict them as they move about the Internet." "Rookies" on bargainandhaggle.com were all assigned a Level 0 Avatar, the image of a newly hatched chick that Mindpepper executives called the "Funky Chicken." As the site explained, "We assign every user a 'Rookie' or Level 0 Avatar right from the minute they sign up so that other users can easily recognize a brand new user. If you are an experienced BargainAndHaggle.com user, your Avatar will likely be a higher level. Please be nice to the Rookies and help them out whenever you can (they may not know their way around the site quite as well as you do), but be wary as they have probably not established a reputation yet either!" (This is analogous to eBay's more successful method of rating buyers and sellers based on their percentage of satisfactory transactions, as reported by those who conduct commerce with them.) Individuals who met specific transaction goals moved up to higher levels with corresponding perks and freebies from bargainandhaggle.com. What's more, since everyone was identified by level in the buy-sell arena, fellow transactors could find out who was seasoned and successful on the site. At higher levels, participants could select their own Avatars to help indicate personality style, gender and other attributes. What's more, buyers and sellers could read personal quotes from their fellow transactors, get level of service information, and see how many successful buying and selling transactions each participant has completed. There were even reviews from fellow transactors rating their buy-sell experience with each individual - a la Amazon, eBay, and many other sites today. Personal Service Helps Ensure Consumer Confidence Thomas Parkinson of Peapod.com says that ordering groceries online is a terrific time-saver for consumers, but it is the delivery truck driver who makes buying from Peapod a "great experience." As he explains, "It's not about price - it's about not having to deal with this part of my life anymore." Peapod customers know their groceries will be delivered in a timely manner by a personable, courteous driver - what Parkinson calls a "consumer friendly driver." As Parkinson's colleague Mike Brennan adds, "The driver is the only person the customer sees. They can create a real bond with that driver." Jim Shanks says that CDW has enjoyed cost savings through its Extranets and online technical information, but he cautions, "You can't eliminate your tech support people because you have the robust Extranet. If people want to do things electronically, great. But we have to have the human touch available if customers want it." That's why CDW assigns every buyer to a sales representative, even if the initial transaction is made 100% online. That rep receives commission on the sale and is available to the customer for future guidance and purchases. Viral Marketing for Old-Fashioned Word of Mouth While a handful of dot.coms spend up to $5 million per 30 -second spot on the Super Bowl, smart Internet marketers have found they can build awareness and referrals for next to nothing by implementing simple-yet-effective viral marketing programs. Visitors to Omaha Steaks one summer evening might have noticed a hot new Ford Mustang in the parking lot. The car was there as part of a joint-venture viral marketing event between Ford and Omaha Steaks. With a radio conglomerate in a nearby building, a remote broadcast was fairly easy to arrange while Omaha Steaks employees and folks from the surrounding industrial park gathered to feast on steak sandwiches and admire the new Mustang model. Some marketers might write off such an event as "too local, too small in impact" - yet when firms like Omaha Steaks take advantage of these opportunities wherever they present themselves, the long-term "word of mouth" effect can be powerful. Peapod's Thomas Parkinson says he is "big into viral marketing as long as the program doesn't give me more people to manage. We create programs that have customers and employees sell memberships for us." On the back of Parkinson's business card - and the business cards of everyone at Peapod - is a special, individual code. When a Peapod employee convinces a friend to sign up and buy online and enter the code, the employee gets $20.00. Customers can get similar referral fees when they invite friends to use Peapod. Parkinson adds, "Now we're getting into school programs where we donate a certain percentage of sales to the school of the customer's choice. Our target customers are busy families with children." The school program can be promoted at the local school level through simple flyers, meetings and affiliations with parent-teacher organizations. In addition to its Live Help Now and Personal Shopper services, American Blinds gained additional impact for its site with its interactive Scrapbook function. As the site explained, "Think of this as your home decorating scrapbook - a personal place that only you can access. Creating your scrapbook is fun, whether you're planning a real project or just dreaming about one. Use it to keep track of interesting products and ideas you find on our site and to compare samples. You can even e-mail your scrapbook to family and friends to share your ideas and get their opinions. It's easy to use, too. When you see something you want to remember, just click 'Save to Scrapbook.'" Focus on Best Prospects for Effective Viral Marketing Mindpepper used a trial and error approach to viral and awareness-building marketing, with some notable failures that still have its executives chuckling and shaking their heads. As Duncan Maclean recalls, "To try to get new customers to register, we developed a cartoon of a snowman who lost his nose, bent over and picked it up and blushed. We sent that to 250,000 people via e-mail and the vision was that at least 10,000 of those people would forward that on to 10 friends. New user registrations went through the roof for three hours and that was it. Catching people a few days before Christmas probably wasn't optimum, either. "We also had this vision we would build momentum locally in Western Michigan. We threw money at local media for a month and it was absolute flatline. The billboard company sent us a map that said 'here's where your billboards will be.' It looked good but we never seemed to drive past them. We did find them in some of the scariest neighborhoods in Grand Rapids - - on the back of buildings with unlit billboards. We were buying smaller billboards -- it was just a disaster. We were on local radio for months and got a total of maybe 60 users. "One of the other failures from those days was thinking we could go door-to-door. We figured we could go to every little antique show in West Michigan, county fairs, antique malls and such, and get them to list things on bargainandhaggle.com. But these people didn't have computers except maybe a dusty old 286 in the back room, and they didn't have credit cards. One woman said the Internet was from the devil. We had a salesperson going door to door from January to April one year, and that resulted in all of one sale directly attributable." Instead, in addition to their very successful e-mail solicitation efforts, Mindpepper focused its viral marketing on a traditional direct marketer's "Invite a Friend" program offered online. As the site said, "Help us spread the word! If you have friends and family who would be interested in a smarter way to buy and sell online, let them know about bargainandhaggle.com. Just fill out the forms below and click on the Submit button. You can use our message or create your own." This way the firm encouraged its own satisfied customers to identify their own "kindred spirits" - thereby building the base of individuals most likely to actively participate in bargainandhaggle.com. they already have leamed one very effective way to keep the 'Net's positive properties at the forefront. They strive to emphasize and optimize "the human touch" in their online and support efforts. Humanizing Internet marketing helps maximize opportunities for a civil, productive, positive and enduring relationship between companies and their customers. According to Duncan Maclean, who started an online auction site called Mindpepper while at BDO Seidman, he and his fellow Mindpepper executives found personal, human contact the ideal antidote to online discourtesy, "People could sometimes be ridiculously rude in the e-mail feedback they send us about our auction site," he says. "They thought they were talking to an unfeeling computer. When we politely contacted them -especially by phone - they immediately felt sorry and apologized, realizing that 'feeling human beings' had read their comments." Jennifer Jurgens of Mindpepper adds, "Sometimes these customers would e-mail us back and apologize then." Amway (Quixtar) Put Humans in the Online Mix Quixtar was one of the biggest online start-ups in history, combining the traditional power and numbers of Amway with the online medium. Now called Amway once again, Quixtar debuted in North America with more than 20 million hits on the first day. The firm's executives attribute many of their accomplishments to the combination of human interaction and online convenience. Amway/Quixtar's most successful offering to date-Ditto Delivery - works because an Independent Business Operator (IBO) takes his or her customers by the hand and leads them through this automatic replenishment plan. The process of setting up a Ditto Delivery account could be tedious if the customer had to do it alone - but with the experienced IBO guiding them through and asking all the right questions, customers cooperate readily. As Quixtar's former marketing executive John Parker noted, "(At the start,) Web people were laughing at us, saying the Internet was all about disintermediation, while we were setting up a site to work in tandem with personal interaction." His colleague Ken McDonald added, "Think about it as a consumer. During the course of a week you might want a pair of pants, some vitamins and a good skin care product. Would you be more comfortable stumbling onto the Web and shopping around, or would you prefer to take a recommendation from a neighbor who is also an IBO?" Parker continued, "What may lead you to buy that specific skin care product for the first time is that your IBO neighbor loans you some. That leads to a conversation about other products." The IBO's personal recommendation is the key to success for Amway/Quixtar - indeed, individual customers cannot purchase from the site without entering an IBO's number. Avatars Humanize and Secure the Buying Process Mindpepper's innovative one-to-one buying software was the key to the astonishing growth of its circa-2000 auction site, bargainandhaggle.com, but the addition of "warm and fuzzy" personal interactions helped spur the site's expansion. Each transactor on bargainandhaggle.com was represented by an Avatar, described as "the online