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INTERSPORT's introductory campaign adverts

An introduction

As part of the Digital Minor Part 2 course run at InHolland Rotterdam, group 1, consisting of Louis Claassen, Anne Larsson, Lucas Bassani, Matthew Boyd, Mignon Pemberton, Yunella Webb, Didem Akdemir and Shara Issa is to construct an analysis of Intersport.com with focus on the current business model, a situation analysis, a competition analysis and current web strategy. Furthermore the value proposition and distribution channel will be scrutinized so as to develop a new web shop strategy that will increase competitive advantage by increasing sales, develop brand equity and increase profitability through the development of a new Web-Shop.

The Web-Shop

As companies choosing to utilize the web must consider how best to maximize the online experience to generate profit. Often companies approach online retail having minimalist expectations often driven by a lack of knowledge on how the internet can be used to develop customer relationships. As social media becomes more important, companies must consider the trend towards experiential marketing. Although an important distribution channel, the internet offers more than a Search, Surf, Click and Buy experience. The goal of group one therefore is to optimize the Intersport.com Web-Shop whereby customers can have an experience.

Several starting points to this improvement will be creating a unified image between the pages. Currently Intersport.com is noticeably different than Intersport.se as an example. But this reality runs across all Intersport.com portals. Differences include online purchasing options and availability, general page layout inconsistency and differing levels of functionality. Indeed there exist differing information on national campaigns, however this is a good difference as local customers are able to relate, engage and even participate in such events.

On the subject of social media, again there is a lack of consistency. In some portals Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are listed, yet in others only two of the three may be present. Social media drives the Web 2.0 experience in allowing the customer to become pro-sumers as well as offering Intersport the added value of customer feedback and reviews which is vital in driving improvement in the value proposition. In the new attention-to-economy consumer, customers are not afraid to voice their opinions about a product or service via social media. Intersport can and should optimize their web experience for this new kind of consumer. That is why social media is so important going forward.

The Brand

Building on the need to apply Experiential Marketing more broadly, the Intersport brand must and can communicate a singular message through an optimized web portal.

The Profit

Apart from increasing sales through the Web-Shop, the objective of the group is to thin out the distribution chain but also bring the customer closer to Intersort. There are several options that can be looked at such as the model of bol.com, with pick-up points at the nearest Albert Heijn being offered as well as the traditional home delivery by post. Alternatively the group will consider setting up regional distribution centers or coordinating with existing outlets for pickup or sending by post.

Finally

Recommendations of our findings will be published in a marketing/business report that will include a design proposition for the Web-Shop to decrease bounce rates, increase stickiness and allow for a greater personal experience to the customer.