Introduction
Due to the need of interactive capability to communicate with the clientele, internet has turn out to be an essential marketing tool in almost all industries. Researches indicate that almost all organizations ranging from small enterprises to large firms use internet to interact with their consumers (Wen et al., 2001).
Thus, the associations are gradually budding websites which would be utilized in satisfying their user needs hence realizing their set objectives. However, not all organizations are capable of effectively integrating the use of internet into the strategic marketing goals. This is due to the differences that exist in the capacity of organization to comprehend and convert information and communication technology (Wen et al., 2001).
The website evaluation can be used by organizations to track performance of their websites over a particular period of time. This will ensure continuous improvements and facilitate comparisons of performance with other peer organizations (Li & Wang, 2010).
Due to the ever varying hi-tech setting and user taste, it is critical that businesses should frequently appraise their websites using the applicable and customary approaches to guarantee that websites serve their anticipated use. Therefore, this research paper will evaluate the effectiveness of the websites of union and un-unionized organizations.
Comparing and contrasting the websites of Union organizations
The websites are similar in both the content and appearance. Contents of both the websites are up to date and unique in own way. In fact the current and unique way of representing information is an essential component of the web sites (Wen et al., 2001).
For instance, the websites contains the fresh news concerning the forthcoming nursing day. The purpose is to increase their information dimension intended for the users. Moreover, the contents of both sites are easy to find and arranged in such a manner that could easily be understood by the audiences or those being targeted. In fact, the features that is characteristic of the standard website.
Further, the websites are similar in design. Though having distinct color of that particular union, the texts within the websites are given a similar technical approach. The home page of each website leads the user to the needed information with the most important being at the front home page to attract the user.
In addition, the pages are arranged in such a way that they become user friendly and easy to navigate. That is the most popular contents are placed on just a click away so as to increase their accessibility. The other important feature in these websites is their interactive nature. Both the websites are essentially interactive and instructive.
However, the websites, especially that of ICN, contains a lot of texts that could overwhelm the user. Though the ICN have the information broken into bullet points and subheadings, the layout of the pages still becomes un-scanable. This makes the page so voluminous and as such becomes unattractive to the users.
In most cases users of websites does not have time to read every word within the pages. Rather they scan the pages for the information they need (Wen et al., 2001). If the page is loaded the users get difficulties finding the information they need hence becomes bored with the site.
Therefore the sites should have an attractive and simple layout. The colors should have a proper contrast with the texts. Also the way the website is designed should attract the user attention and enhance its content (Wen et al., 2001).
In addition the web site should serve the purpose of the organization and at the same time does not detract from its usability. Some of these characteristics are somehow lacking in both the websites especially the attractiveness of the sites to the user. In fact attraction and interaction are the most important features of web marketing. Lack of these features makes the site redundant on its purpose (Wen et al., 2001).
The effectiveness of the unionized websites
The effectiveness of the websites of the two union organizations will be assessed from the functional perspective. That is, their purpose in form of how they communicate, inform, transact, relate and their technical merit (Li & Wang, 2010).
Indeed, the analysis indicates that these sites have their focus mainly on the dimensions of the information. The analysis besides signifies that the appliance of website on the dimension of operation and dealings are not commonly being positioned.
Amongst the appraisal dimension scientific plus affects the efficacy of all other selling magnitudes. At the basic marketing level, the website must be in a position to provide to the visitors of the site, in this case union members, timely information about the organization (Li & Wang, 2010). Once the information dimension has been achieved, the communication function should be considered.
The communication function involved all areas of marketing and promotion. In other words the union communicates to the members their intentions, programs activities as well as other relevant information.
Conversely, the information and communication dimensions will be used by the HR departments to know the workers intentions, their planned activities as well as their agitation. This would be useful in the buildup of proper relationship between the organization employees.
Comparing and contrasting the union avoidance consultancy firms
The two renowned union avoidance consultant firms are the Alignment Group Consultants and the Weissman Group Consultants. The Weissman Group Consultants tend to work jointly with supervisors and managers in helping organizations to realize positive results.
In the process, this firm does not only offer guidance to managers and supervisors to precisely educate workers as regard to the potentiality of union representation implications, but it equally assist them in understanding and identifying issues that led to the unionization efforts.
The assumed procedures do not just enhance the probability of organization triumph in an attempt to unionize, but it also decreases the possibility of prospective attempts through heightening the management compassion to issues which might impact the morale of workers negatively.
The Alignment Group Consultants in contrast works to ensure positive employees relations. This union avoidance consultancy firm aspires for great change during the current widespread economic transition. It works to guarantee that corporations that are extra susceptible to the union groups have regulations altered in their support.
The websites have contents that reflect the company uniqueness and tend to be informative and interactive. In essence the contents tend to attract the customers rather than members as in the case with union websites. The informative and interactive characteristic of the contents keep the visitors of the site coming for more. Moreover the texts are arranged in such a way that the information needed by the user is just a click away.
In fact, what the companies offer in terms of services are well arranged under the headlines services with the details of each services placed a click away from the main service. This makes the websites easy to navigate and user friendly. Though the main targets audience of these websites is companies and union organizations individuals can also have an access.
Nevertheless the information being provided is focused towards attracting corporate that avoid unions as well as union organization. In other words these, firms are more informative than interactive with the audience (Feng et al., 2003). The reason is that services being offered by these firms such as workers strike management depend entirely on the available information.
As such, these websites are perceived to be boring especially by individual users who might not be interested in the offered information. Moreover, the information being provided is scarce. Rather than providing information about services being offered by the firm, they have left the reader to consult the firm for more details and this appears to generate additional costs to the users.
The website contents should be arranged in such a way that the user gets it easy to find the needed information. In a situation where the user does not get the needed information then the website becomes boring and its main purpose is compromised.
However, the websites are kept in their professional and simple format. The layout is attractive and easy to the viewer. This enhances their usability. The websites also contain pop up adverts that interact with the user. The pop-up ads are attractive and forms additional contents that attract users. The speed with which each page loads is extremely high.
These means that the websites are less graphic and the traffic volume are user’s computer friendly. In addition, the websites have servers that have enough space or the bandwidth as well as lightweight code. All the websites have optimized their search engines.
In other words they have offered the options for searching the information wanted by inserting key wards on search area of the websites. This is essential as users will find it easy to get whatever information by simply searching rather that navigating all through the web sites. This enables the sites to be convenient to the users.
Critically, the websites are not built to market the firms rather to inform the users. Though there are elements of marketing the firm’s services, the main purpose is to inform the target audience about the company and the services they offer. This is evidence by lack of interactive capabilities that would glue the users to the website such as the current news as well as other forms of web interactions.
Effectiveness of the non unionized web sites
Like the unionized websites the effectiveness of these sites will also be evaluated in accordance with their functionality perspective. As shown by Li & Wang (2010), the current online promotion, contrasting to the customary selling relies a lot on IT. Thus, the efficacy of one website has to incorporate both the promotion philosophy and expertise.
Per se, the websites for these organizations should be appraised based on their proportions namely communiqué, operation, affiliation and mechanical merits (Feng et al., 2003). Of these scopes, the mechanical merit merges all other scopes as its efficacy is hinged on by the other scopes.
The websites analysis indicates that the union avoidance firms have focused on the information and communication dimension (Angehrn, 1997). The firm’s services depend wholly on the information. Moreover the target audience or the users of the websites are searching for the appropriate information that touches on the needs of the organization.
Therefore the web is developed in such a way that it achieves its intended purpose through the development of information dimension. In conclusion, from the attributes of these two websites, the Weissman Group appears to be more effective than the Alignment Group.
References
Angehrn, A. (1997). Designing mature Internet business strategies: The ICDT model. European Management Journal, 15(4), pp.361-369.
Feng, R., Morrison, A. M., & Ismail, J. A. (2003). East versus West: A comparison of online destination marketing in China and the USA. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 10(1), pp.43-56.
Li, X. & Wang, Y. (2010). Evaluating the effectiveness of destination marketing organizations’ websites: Evidence from China. International Journal of Tourism Research, 12(5), pp.536-549.
Wen, H. J., Chen, H. G. & Hwang, H. G. (2001). E-commerce web site design: Strategies and models. Information Management & Computer Security, 9(1), pp.5-12.