Last but not least, the final 2 questions of Unit 4 - Online Branding

3. What do you think are some of the existing strategies which the chosen website use to publicise and generate awareness of the website among its key audience segments?

Singtel’s online brand is adapted from an offline brand and their offline business is definitely bigger than the online business therefore their domain name is based on their offline business - Singtel.com.sg.

The purpose of creating a brand online is to produce brand loyalty and instill higher awareness and perceived quality of the brand. The results of this would lead to more purchases made by customers, frequent visits to check out the latest promotions, to register as an online customer and other value-adding activities which helps to strengthen and promote the brand.

Singtel’s existing strategies currently fulfills the following objectives:

a) A positive attitude is created when people visit their site because of their interactive site design (flash advertisements etc.)

- This could be an attraction to new and potential customers or, persons new to the brand “Singtel”

b) Builds trust amongst its customers to further enhance the offline brand, to create the band (Singtel) awareness around the world and to fulfill its promises of impressive post-service to its customers.

- This strategy probable targets investors and potential investors as Singtel is a trust-worthy and reliable business partner.

c) It creates web value by satisfying current/ potential customers’ needs or wants by publishing a whole lot of relevant information on its products and services offered. It also exceeds expectations by customers and investors when it establishes a prominent website in addition to its strong offline brand.

- This is a win-win situation for both Singtel and its investors and customers.


4. What additional branding strategies would you recommend to this site to:

(a) Strengthen its online branding identity

It could increase the number of flash ads to attract more visitors by putting flash banner ads in its website. They should place the ads in places their targeted consumers roam. Like tech geeks, an example would be to place the ad in hardwarezone.com

Their banner ads could also be linked to their current promotions page where they’d like to sell more of the promotion items.


(b) Promote greater awareness of the website to its various audience segments?

One way is to sponsor contents in other websites. An example could be having a pop-up in a bank’s website (targets = bank executives who travels frequently).

The pop-up content is like a questionnaire/answer which states the telecommunication problems of these executives. This will get them interested in what/how Singtel can solve their problem and visit Singtel’s site.

That's the end of Unit 4.

Unit 4 - Online Branding (cont'd)

2. Examine the online branding elements (e.g. logos, colour schemes, url, buttons, screensavers etc) in the chosen website.

Colour Schemes:

One of the main colours we noticed was red and white. My group thinks that it is due to wanting to create the image that Singtel is from Singapore. And in most countries, I suppose they do recognize our SG flag as red and white. Thus, this colour combination further emphasizes that Singtel is a Singapore company. Why do they want to do that (affiliating Singtel and SG)? I think that Singapore is quite well-known for its good infrastructure in telecommunications and transport. So by relating Singtel with Singapore, it boosts confidence for our investors/ business partners to do business or buy products from Singtel.

Screensavers and advertisements:

In Singtel's site, they have very catchy and colourful advertisements of their current promotions. And this plays an important role in attracting customers/visitors to click on the link to see what are the current promotions Singtel has. For e.g. Christmas is coming and they'd have a relatively big advertisment for Christmas sales on mobile phones.

What do you think is the overall image which the site is trying to project? Do they reflect the core values of the organization effectively?

On the whole, the main image that we felt when we entered the site is the professional & corporate image they portrayed on their site. Yes we feel that they have effectively reflect their core values of the organization.

Customer Focus:

They are customer-oriented as they sell their products and services based on their targeted customers. One key essential difference from the other telco companies is that they have a page which caters just for customers after-service and/or after buying their products. (See Unit 1 post dated: 26th October 2006)

Challenger Spirit and Teamwork:

They have a very in-depth About Singtel page which basically provides an idea of the organization's position in the telecommunication industry. They have a lot of articles regarding Singtel (found on the sidebar). This says that they are a pretty open organization in the sense that they are not afraid to share the company's information. They are also partners with Bridge Mobile. This enables Singtel to (quoted from the link) "Subscribers of SingTel Mobile will enjoy quality coverage while roaming and using the Bridge members’ network. The Alliance is committed to giving its 78 million subscribers a seamless mobile experience when they travel within the Alliance's network."

Integrity and Personal Excellence:

In addition to the point that Singtel has a lot of articles posted, they also post a lot of their business information for potential investors to view. For e.g. annual reports, financial results and summary, AGM and Shareholders distribution etc. This further emphasizes that Singtel is a professional telco company with extensive global networks.

We will continue the last 2 questions in another post. =)

unit 4 - step 5 [part 1]

in this post, we will be discussing on the first question of the step 5.
we will be doing on the rest of the questions in [part 2] in another post.

Is the chosen Website’s Branding Message Strong and Memorable?

Question 1. What are the core values of the organization?
the core values of the organization are Customer Focus, Challenger Spirit, Teamwork, Integrity and Personal Excellence.

as quoted from their website:

Customer Focus

Our success is based upon our customer focus.
We listen to and connect with customers. We anticipate their needs and make it easy for them to do business with us. We keep promises. We offer them value and quality services to enrich lives and enhance business success.
We treat them with dignity and respect.

Challenger Spirit

The creativity and innovation of our people sets us apart.
We look for better ways of doing business and we share a passion for making a difference. When faced with challenges and opportunities, we don’t say “Cannot”, we ask “Why not?”. We are tenacious and we compete fairly.
We set the pace and never give up.

Teamwork

By working as one team with shared goals we achieve great things.
We value ideas and contributions from everyone. We recognise, respect and value diversity in the team. We develop strong bonds by communicating and sharing knowledge. We encourage open discussion and commit to an agreed position.
All of us have a part to play.

Integrity

Our reputation is based upon our ability to fulfill promises to shareholders, customers and employees.
We do so by being honest in our dealings, taking responsibility and being accountable for our actions. We treat everyone the way we would like to be treated. We are proactive in identifying issues and coming up with solutions. We ensure that the highest ethical standards guide us in making decisions.
We are true to our word.

Personal Excellence

Leadership and superior performance are achieved through the pursuit of personal excellence.
We are committed to doing and being the best. We seek continuous improvement and take pride in what we do. We do things to the highest possible standards. We acknowledge the potential of the individual and create opportunities for all to grow and excel.
Together, we celebrate our success and achievements.


That's all for this. :)

UNIT 2

in this unit, we are going through Step 3 of the Pirouz's 7 Steps.

Step 3 is to see whether the website we chose, in this case www.singnet.com.sg, is effective in communicating the site's key purpose of using visual language.

in this step, we learnt that there are two aspects to design:
- design elements

• the colours, lines and shapes in the design

- design principles

• the way the colours, lines and shapes are put together to make the design look nice

Question 1
(a) Use of Colours in the website

in the website that we have chose to work on, they used red colour (with a hint of grey) as a their basic webpage colour. this is good because the one of the rule of using colours for a website is to limit the number of colours used. this website used only two colours to avoid making their website looked like a disaster.

(b) Use of fonts

we are not really sure of the font type that is used in the site but we know that it fulfills the criteria of choosing the right fonts for a site. the criterias are readibility, legibility and colour.

the sentences on the site was easy to read, legible enough to be read and the colour used did not clash with the colour scheme of the website.

(c) Use of other graphics (example images)

there are a number of graphics used in this website. most of the graphics used acts as a link to another page. once the graphic is clicked, another designated page will load. the graphics on the site has a good contrast as it stands out in the site and do not blend in with the background.

the use of images in our chosen website is effective as the message it wants to send across is done, the size of the images are just right (viewers do not have to scroll up and down to look for them) and the load time of the images are fast.

(d) Overall effectiveness of graphics

as a whole, the graphics used are effective on the website. this is because the buttons are just nice for viewers to find and read, the animated graphics do have some pause in between (it does not just continue playing) and viewers do not have to keep on scrolling to see the whole graphic.

Question 2

we believe that there is a consistensy across the site.

the reason why we say this is because firstly, the colours are consistent. for example, they used the colour red and grey for the homepage and they used the same colour scheme throughout all the other links they have. secondly, the fonts that they used are not changing. they are the same for all pages and this do not create a clash between the fonts on the site. lastly, the graphics used in the site are all consistent with the colour scheme and also the design of the site. the graphics do not just appear out of nowhere and the colours just 'mix and match' with the whole site.

therefore, we think that there is a consistency across the site based on our findings abovementioned.

UNIT 1

Understanding the Key purpose of the chosen website and whether it meets the needs of its target audience segments.

The site we've chosen is Singtel.

Singtel's website targets a few audiences. These include: mobile consumers who can query price plans and phone prices&information, mobile shoppers who buys phone online(online shopping), media streaming services(e.g video), telecommunications for businesses ranging from small to large corporations, (An example would be SmartCab who "rents" Singtel's GPRS network. More info can be found here.) foreigners and businessmen who needs to make frequent international calls overseas and internet subscription plans for different types of users.

Not only does Singtel provides adequate information for potential customers, they also have plenty of services available for existing customers. Existing customers can visit their website for Internet SMS- free-of-charge, settling of phone bills online, downloading of ringtones, pictures, games etc, backing-up of phone data, many other value-added services and most importantly, they have a section which concentrates on customer service.

The website offers comprehensive information for visitors/ customers who are probably looking for a service from Singtel.

Direct Competitors: M1 and Starhub
Singtel has a very good after-service for their customers. This may be a value-add for them as customers feel satisfied and they know where to get help in case they encounter any problems.

Indirect Competitors: Mobile retailers
Singtel has to offer a more attractive prices by having promotions and discounts for loyal customers in order to compete with the retailers.

****edited****

In response to the different segments of customers. In addition to our second paragraph (to be more exact), we feel that Singtel segments its customers through demographic variables. Some of the variables which falls into this category are: age, gender, family (size), education level, income level, occupation, education, religion, language, race/ nationality etc.

One of the variables we feel that Singtel uses is the occupation variable. For their Internet service, they categorize they services based on occupation. A very good eample would be from here. This allows their customers to select whichever services which suits their needs. And it is easier for them to find the plans that cater to them. This saves lots of time and effort as customers don't have to navigate all the pages to find what they are looking for.

Another possible variable for the corporate customers would be the size of the business. As you can see from here, they've divided their corporate customers to "small business" and "medium/large enterprise". This has the same benefits as the above case.

Our group feels that Singtel's customers has a wide range.
This includes -(for Internet) basic home users, students, family users, users with extra needs like gamers, corporate users - small businesses to medium/large businesses.

Customers who are looking for value-added services. E.g. IDEAS for live Media streaming

and lastly their core customers for mobile services.

OCC

this is our blog for our module Online Communications.

our group consists of
Khalisah (crappyqueen)
Shuyan (a buffet of veggies)
Adam (adam)

here, we will be blogging abt the Pirouz's 7 Steps on our chosen webiste:
www.singnet.com.sg

cheers :)