Accenture Benchmarks Online 'Brand Experience'

Global management consulting and technology services company Accenture has added another service to its media audit and consulting offer. The Accenture Web Evaluator is a web site benchmarking offering looking at the 'brand experience' of site visitors.

Of 260 business-to-consumer (B2C) sites evaluated, the firm says the top five delivering the best 'brand experience' to consumers are those of Nike, Ford, Google, Adidas and Microsoft. The measure reflects sites' success in engaging consumers using a variety of techniques, such as 'providing detailed, high-quality information in interesting formats; building relationships through interactive exchanges; and encouraging return visits by current and potential customers through the use of promotions, premium services, clubs and other online innovations'.

The approach uses nine key factors comprised of 33 criteria associated with successful sites. The nine are: search and navigation; information; service; engagement; relationship building; branding; eCommerce; globalization; and number of visitors. Nike scored particularly well for engagement, relationship building and branding; Google.com for relationship building; Ford's U.S. site for depth of product information; and Adidas for branding.

Jeffrey Merrihue, CEO of research-oriented practice Accenture Marketing Sciences, comments: 'Our findings indicate that companies can get a greater return from their marketing and brand investments by improving the functionality and impact of their websites by adding important information and relevant services, creating engaging features to build relationships, and improving the retail and e-commerce linkages.'

Accenture bought Sydney-based media auditor MediaSenz in May (www.mrweb.com/drno/news6788.htm ). The Marketing Sciences practice provides media auditing, benchmarking and related consulting services, and counts more than half of the top 100 global advertisers among its clients. The group, online at www.accenture.com , employs more than 158,000 people in 49 countries and had net revenues of US$16.65 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2006.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.