November 17, 2010

Is the web site passé?

In a discussion some days ago someone suggested that since the social media have become so important sources of customer information there is no need any more for web sites! He mentioned Apple as an example of a firm not really needing a web site to promote its i-products. And reports like this make people talking about a Websiteless web.
If we accept that Apple does not need any web site to sell its i-products - I would argue here that Apple does not need any other form of promotion either since its products are pre-sold thanks to free publicity and high degree of perceived customer advocacy - then we deal with an exception that rather confirms the rule. Not everyone is Apple and in 99,9% of the cases people interested in a product or a brand will look for it on the firm’s web site. I would argue that trying hard to have a perfect and user friendly web site is an absolute must for every firm (except maybe Apple) today. How things will be next year I do not dare to say, the Web 3.0 is on the way!