[Sigia-l] The New Nielsen?

[Christopher Fahey [askrom]]

Paula wrote:
> > People aren't focused on being 'entertained'...
> > they want to avoid being 'pissed off'. Our goal 
> > is to deliver the value they 'seek'. If they're not
> > seeking entertainment (and yes, there are 
> > exceptions for sites that are purely focused in 
> > this area, but I argue that few of them are 
> > either economically or financially justifiable)

I bristle at seeing art and entertainment being mentioned as merely a
footnote on the road to productivity, but I generally agree (with
qualifications) with Paula's sentiment that too often "entertainment" is
placed too-far up the priority list for business-oriented web sites.

That said, I should point out two things:

(1) Let's take two sites that are equally successful in delivering on
task-oriented business objectives. The site that is more "fun" to use is
far more likely to increase customer satisfaction and improve the
company's overall brand message. It is true, as Paula argues, that an
inordinate focus on fun can hurt productivity, but it is also true that
productivity can and should be made fun. One should try to fall
somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of
entertainment-versus-productivity:
  (a) allow your staff to snort coke during business hours 
  (b) have a foosball table to let the staff ocassionally blow off steam
  (c) shackle staff members to their desks and provide them diapers

(2) Some people argue that most advertising does not work *at all* -
that it is all a waste of money, that the advertising industry is merely
a way for corporate executives to convince themselves that their company
is well-known, respectable, and/or cool. This is, however, a fringe
opinion. Most companies carefully budget their advertising and marketing
expenditures, calculating that ROI thing and everything. If Disney makes
a high-bandwidth flash-only web site to promote a new cartoon movie, you
can be darn sure that someone at Disney calculated that their DSL
customers are far more valuable than their 14.4 dial-up customers (they
buy far more stuffed dolls and DVDs) and that Disney's overall brand
image would be immensely ill-served by web sites without high-quality
animation and sound. 

Marketing departments are often responsible for web sites, and yes,
marketing departments are often full of suckers whose egos are easily
stroked into paying for an elaborate web site that falls flat when
addressing real user needs. But this is a dying trend. My prediction is
that, although we are seeing fewer splash screens on bank sites, we will
continue to see push-the-limit entertainment sites that are totally
economically justifiable.

-Cf

[christopher eli fahey]
art: http://www.graphpaper.com
sci: http://www.askrom.com
biz: http://www.behaviordesign.com