Book Report on "Bobbie Brown Website"

Book Report 11 pages (3111 words) Sources: 3

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Bobbiebrown Website

The bobbibrown.co.uk Website

The recent economic crisis has temporarily turned the attention of both public as well as economic agents, both of whom became more focused on implementing savings strategies in the detriment of expansion strategies. In other words, both individuals as well as companies turned their attention to a more protectionist strategy and postponed investments. Yet, such a decision can only be viable within the short-term, and companies need to continually invest in their development and competitive position.

Before the crisis emerged and when investments were still focal in economic actions, one particular must was that of taking one's business online. The virtual environment was no longer an alternative to traditional sales and marketing, but a necessity in the competitive battle. Cosmetics company Bobbi Brown has also created a website through which to promote and sell its items. Yet, this website appears less competitive and appealing in comparison to other websites in the industry, such as the ULTA Beauty Website or the MAC Cosmetics Website. The aim of the current endeavor is that of conducting an evaluation of the bobbiebrown.co.uk website in order to identify flaws and propose solutions. Before launching the analysis however, it is important to become familiarized with the company.

2. The Bobbi Brown Company

The Bobbi Brown Company is owned by makeup creator Bobbi Brown and it was born out of the woman's desire for makeup shades that would highlight the positive features of her aspect. In other words, the company was created due to the limited offer of adequately colored makeup products. Today, Bobbi Brown's life and entrepreneurial philosophy is constructed on the following sentence: "the secret to beauty is simple -- be who you are" (Brown, quoted of the Facebook profile). The Bobbi Brown cosmetics products are being sold in hundreds of stores, but more recently, they are also being sold online.

3. The Bobbi Brown Website

As it has been mentioned throughout the introductory section, taking one's business online is a necessity in this highly technological era. Makeup creator Bobbi Brown has understood this necessity and has created the bobbibrown.co.uk website (on the internet at http://www.bobbibrown.co.uk/) to sell and promote her items. Yet, in order to identify the degree to which Brown will be able to achieve her organizational goals through her website, it is crucial to evaluate the website.

The specialized literature proposes various models in the analysis of a website. Juline E. Millis and Rob Law (2005) argue that the evaluation of the website is an ongoing process which commences in the website development stages and continues throughout the conceptualization and implementation of the website. From the two authors' standpoint, the actual evaluation of a website is to be conducted from four distinct angles: the technical perspective, the marketing perspective, the customer perspective and the internal processes perspective (Millis and Law, 2005).

Lipo Wang, Ke Cheng and Yew Soon Ong (2005) argue that the evaluation of a website should be constructed on the orientation of the website, its content, its bibliographic control, the services it offers, the accuracy of the information and the privacy of the customer data collected.

Regardless of the validity of these models, fact remains that each evaluation process is unique, as every evaluated website is unique. In other words, each website and each evaluation are characterized by unique particularities, such as the desired and actual functionality of the website, the characteristics of the target market, the type of products sold, the industry in which the company activates and so on.

Given this situation, it becomes obvious that the website evaluation models in the specialized literature do not offer the desired answer, but mere structural and informational data based on which each evaluator will construct his own evaluation, considering as well as the unique features of his website. In the particular case of the bobbibrown.co.uk website, the evaluation of the website should revolve around the design of the website, the brand strategy available online, the product, the target market and the social networking as these five elements represent the core of the bobbiebrown.co.uk website and organizational goals.

2.1. The Design

The design of the website is flawed from two main standpoints. First of all, it does not use the entire page. While it might be argued that it does this from ergonomics reasons, such an argument is not viable as the remaining white spaces to the right and down of the page disorient the user. These are some specific pages in the overall website which spread out over an increased surface. When accessing the "Looks and Tips" menu for instance, the retrieved page is longer and the white side is only observable to the right. While this design looks more appealing than the original one, it still offers the sense of incomplete.

A second element in the website design is given by the interface. While it does contain numerous radio buttons to send the user to various menus, the colors and the pictures used fail in creating user appeal. The combination between black and while -- while normally classic and elegant -- is here united with pink, which creates a strong, unappealing contrast. Additionally, the front page product is a lips and eye make up product in red, beige, purple and black shades. Such shades do not appeal to the modern day consumers who strive harder and harder to use make up that enhances their natural beauty. In other words, the strong colors on both the website and well as the front page products might distance the client looking for natural shades.

2.3. The Brand

Large cosmetics companies generally sell their products under various brands. Yet, the bobbibrown.co.uk website offers its products under the single Bobbi Brown brand. This observation is however not stated to present a flaw of the website, but it is a mere assertion. Additionally, it is highly understandable why the smaller size company would sell under a single brand -- its products serve the same needs; they are similar; they address the same target market; but also some company related features, such as the small size of the company and its consequent limited resources. Furthermore, selling under a new brand would exponentially increase risks. Generally speaking, a company can successfully launch sales under a new brand when its current brand and the company itself are reputable and reliable. This means that the consumer's trust in the new product would be high. Yet, in the case of Bobbi Brown, while the company is successful, it has to prove its true value and worth. A newly created brand therefore would not be able to retrieve success from the current brand and company reputation as these are still formed.

Yet, while it is understood and agreed why Bobbi Brown sells her products under a single brand, it is intriguing to assess the current branding strategy. And this is true even more so when the brand is the most important component of any marketing strategy and no website can be successful in attracting new customers and maintain them if it does not emphasize on brand.

Bob Baker (2009) offers a list of nine components of a successful online branding strategy. All these elements will be assessed relative to the bobbibrown.co.uk website in order to identify the strength of the cosmetics company's brand.

1 -- Brand definition -- the website does mention the name of the brand (Bobbie Brown), but it does not clarify what purpose the brand serves.

2 -- Product identification -- from this angle, the Bobbi Brown brand is strongly enforced as the website immediately reveals that the company offers cosmetics products

3 -- Figure head -- the figure head is understood as the real person associated with the brand. From this standpoint as well, the brand strategy is powerful as it presents the story of Bobbi Brown from her first interaction with cosmetics as a child to her currently entrepreneurial occupation.

4 -- Fan-club mentality -- the fan club mentality is in fact a new means of referring to the creation of loyal customers who create word of mouth publicity. The bobbibrown.co.uk website does reveal some applications aimed at achieving this desiderate, materialized in the "What's New," "Looks and Tips" or "Ask an Artist" menus. Unfortunately enough however, the functionality of the "Ask an Artist" menu -- the one which would be best in attracting loyal customers through the sense of personalized customer services -- is limited. From the standpoint of the fan club mentality then, the brand strength is medium as the necessity is understood, but the application is limited.

5 -- Good use of words -- the bobbibrown.co.uk website seems to be under the influence of the "less is more philosophy" in which graphical elements play the pivotal part (Baker, 2009). This means that from the standpoint of communications, the brand is relatively poorly implemented.

6 -- Visual elements to reinforce the identity -- graphical elements fully characterize the bobbiebrown.co.uk website, meaning that this brand strategy creates strength.

7 --… READ MORE

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