Introduction
Growth in technology has facilitated growth in business for the companies involved in the production of mobile phones and other computerized devices that can access the network. The demand for Mobile network and data services has led to the expansion of many telecoms in the telecommunications industry, and their services have assumed an international outlook in various regions. Airtel, AT&T, and Zain are some of the multinational telecom organizations, and they have not only majored in the provision of mobile network and data services, but they have also harnessed opportunities on online platforms to sell computerized gadgets.
The companies have actively assumed the use of online platforms like social media, online stores, and marketing websites to increase sales levels. However, a critical view of the respective corporations reveals that their use of the internet for marketing is at different levels. The chosen websites are viable in providing a clear picture of the feasibility of online marketing. This paper looks into the websites of the three companies with a close focus on their efficiency in addressing the 7Cs.
Airtel’s Website
Airtel’s website is highly responsive and quite visually attractive in terms of context and content. The company has used red as its theme color for the pages on the website. The website has a menu bar that provides visitors with the required guidance to visit the relevant pages, which makes it quite easy to navigate and access information. The content of the website is characterized by an offering mix of products and services. The home page of the website highlights the products and services offered by the corporation. The loading speed of the hyperlinks within the website is quite impressive, especially when one considers that the website is characterized by numerous images of the services and products on offer.
Airtel users must feel like they are part of a community when they visit this website because it is designed to encapsulate all the business and social activities offered by Airtel. The website is fairly interactive, especially in the media section, where visitors can contact the customer service personnel for assistance. There is a personalized interface that highlights information about respective users that hold various service accounts with the corporation.
This implies that the site can be customized. The website facilitates a two-way communication platform between the organization and its customers, and most of the pages highlight various commodities on offer, which implies that the website is primarily used to market new products and services. The commercial function of the website is quite efficient, with users being able to make various purchases of products and services (Airtel, 2015). This factor is enabled by a smooth connectivity function of the site.
AT&T’s Website
AT&T has developed a highly interactive website that offers its visitors customized services. This is revealed by the provision of a login platform on the home page, where visitors can sign in to their accounts, and a connectivity feature with links that load relatively fast. This approach to marketing entails gathering as much information about clients as possible so that the company can develop the most feasible marketing approach for various customers. In terms of context and content, it is quite impressive from a visual perspective, and there are many images of the products and services on offer.
The home page only has three menu entries, which include the online shop, my AT&T, and the support link (AT&T, 2015). This implies that the website is primarily developed for marketing and support purposes. The website is designed to facilitate an easy commerce system with the online shop page facilitating the procurement of products and services. Communication on the website is two-way, and it is quite an interactive website. The corporation demonstrates the ability to understand the needs of the customers, and it has particularly ensured that new products are advertised on the website quite aggressively.
The website has applied some motivators to engage customers in discussions and commercial activities. The connectivity in the page is quite efficient, with every page on the website providing visitors with an option to log into their accounts or create new accounts for personalized services. This also represents the community aspect of the site. The personal accounts facilitate customization of services for the respective visitors, as well as direct communication between the clients and the customer care personnel.
Zain’s Website
Zain is a telecom corporation that operates within the Middle Eastern region and Africa. Its website is not as appealing in the visual context as the other two websites analyzed in this paper. The home page of the website is quite complicated, making it difficult for a new visitor to locate the necessary links. This implies that the connectivity aspect is below the expectations. One has to try clicking on several headings to identify the hyperlinks that lead to the pages allocated to different Zain entities.
The color scheme and the themes of the website are relatively dull, which fails to excite visitors to scroll through the website. The communication platform is relatively one-sided, and it is apparent that the website is primarily used to provide information about the company, rather than marketing its products and services. The website has a link on the menu that leads to a device section, where new products are advertised, but the images are quite noisy, in terms of drawing the attention of the potential consumers. One of the better features of the website is that it has language options between English and Arabic.
This ensures that potential customers do not face language barriers, and it gives visitors the feeling of being in a community. There are several products highlighted in the device link, but there are very few images to provide visitors to the site with the visual aid of the products and services on offer (Welcome to Zain, 2015). This calls for an improvement in the context and content aspects. However, the commercial function is quite efficient on the site because customers can purchase products and services easily.
Recommendations
Zain’s website needs to develop a lively outlook, especially in its context and content. The website also needs to assume more simplicity, especially on the home page (Yang, Kim, Vu & Dhalwani, 2010). The layout is quite confusing for a first time visitor to the site. The theme colors should also be simpler to draw more attention to the images of the products on sale (Sabouri & Jalali, 2009). It is also necessary for the website to provide consumers with more images of the products on sale. Visual appeal fosters more impulse buying, and this should be the primary goal of the corporation (Yang, Kim & Dhalwani, 2008).
Conclusion
Telecommunication corporations across the world have particularly leveraged the internet to harness a larger market share for their products and services. The analysis of Airtel, AT&T, and Zain has revealed that these companies have recognized the viability of online platforms for marketing purposes. It is also apparent that some of the companies have addressed the 7Cs model better than others. The internet provides a very good opportunity for the aforementioned corporations to facilitate sales, customer service, and marketing.
References
Airtel. (2015). Web.
AT&T. (2015). Web.
Sabouri, M., & Jalali, A. (2009). Evaluating web 2.0 services based on 7C framework. In Information Technology: New Generations, 2009. ITNG’09. Sixth International Conference on (pp. 1693-1694). New York: IEEE.
Welcome to Zain. (2015). Web.
Yang, T. A., Kim, D. J., & Dhalwani, V. (2008). Social networking as a new trend in e-marketing. In Research and Practical Issues of Enterprise Information Systems II (pp. 847-856). New York: Springer US.
Yang, T. A., Kim, D. J., Vu, T., & Dhalwani, V. (2010). Capturing online collaboration in the design elements model for web 2.0 and beyond. Handbook of Research on Web, 2(3.0), 647-661.