Design question...

"William Tasso" <SpamBlocked.TakeThisOut@tbdata.com> wrote in message
news:c1l20i$1k72ei$1@ID-139074.news.uni-berlin.de...
 > BenignVanilla wrote:
  > > I have a customer that markets his products both to private
  > > customers, and to corporate customers. The products are basically the
  > > same, the pitch is just different, quantities, etc. Does anyone have
  > > some thoughts on building a site for such a beast? Should we have two
  > > sites? Just one site with a cover that leads to two seperate areas?
  > > Just one site, period?
  > >
  > > My concern is that a corporate customer may be turned off by the site
  > > if they see non-commercial stuff, and non-commercial users may be
  > > turned off if they see commercial stuff. Any thoughts?
 >
 > Three sites?
 >
 > One to service the needs of the corporates
 > One to service the needs of the private consumer
 > One for the 'our products are great' ego trip
 >
 >
 > One site will work unless the volume discounts are large enough to create
 > negative vibes for the private consumer.

The customer really wants a single site, and I am leaning towards that I
just have a nagging feeling somewhere. I think the beauty of the single site
concept is that let's us show the company service any order no matter how
great or small. I am just concerned that Big Corp, Inc. comes to the site,
and see a link for a Barbie or Nascar paint job on a small run of product
and turns to another site. Hmm. Or maybe he is a big Nascar fan and makes an
order for himself at the same time? I guess, I dunno.

I appreciate the feedback.

BV,<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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In article <WOidnf3Ebb8SlKPd4p2dnA DeleteThis @giganews.com>,
"BenignVanilla" <bvREMOVE DeleteThis @tibetanbeefgarden.com> wrote:

 > I have a customer that markets his products both to private customers, and
 > to corporate customers. The products are basically the same, the pitch is
 > just different, quantities, etc. Does anyone have some thoughts on building
 > a site for such a beast? Should we have two sites? Just one site with a
 > cover that leads to two seperate areas? Just one site, period?

It's hard to say without knowing exactly what the product is, but you do
*not* want to do something like Dell has done, where you can't even
*find* the product you're interested in without a huge runaround. Your
customer should not have to figure out your business model just to give
you money. I want a PC that supports over 2GB of RAM, and I shouldn't
have to puzzle out Dell's damn corporate structure system so that I can
buy one from them.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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BenignVanilla bvREMOVE.RemoveThis@tibetanbeefgarden.com wrote:
 > I have a customer that markets his products both to private customers, and
 > to corporate customers. The products are basically the same, the pitch is
 > just different, quantities, etc. Does anyone have some thoughts on building
 > a site for such a beast? Should we have two sites? Just one site with a
 > cover that leads to two seperate areas? Just one site, period?
 >
 > My concern is that a corporate customer may be turned off by the site if
 > they see non-commercial stuff, and non-commercial users may be turned off if
 > they see commercial stuff. Any thoughts?
 >

I'd start by looking at two different front ends to a set of common
product pages. That way you only update one set of pages for price
changes, product changes etc, and yet have the ability to pitch to both
sets of customers. Possible using an index page that is little more than a
logo, and few catchy general statements, and a choice of corporate or non-
commercial site. I'd then market the two sub indexes separately.

It might even be worth running three domains. One that operates as above
and two that basically do one of the pitches but link to the first for
product info. Then one could add appropriate general information pages
without "queering the pitch".

--
eric
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.ericjarvis.co.uk" target="_blank">www.ericjarvis.co.uk</a>
"to the man who only has a hammer, everything looks
like a job for somebody with a decent tool kit"<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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William Tasso wrote:
 > BenignVanilla wrote:
  >> I have a customer that markets his products both to private
  >> customers, and to corporate customers. The products are basically the
  >> same, the pitch is just different, quantities, etc. Does anyone have
  >> some thoughts on building a site for such a beast? Should we have two
  >> sites? Just one site with a cover that leads to two seperate areas?
  >> Just one site, period?
  >>
  >> My concern is that a corporate customer may be turned off by the site
  >> if they see non-commercial stuff, and non-commercial users may be
  >> turned off if they see commercial stuff. Any thoughts?
 >
 > Three sites?
 >
 > One to service the needs of the corporates
 > One to service the needs of the private consumer
 > One for the 'our products are great' ego trip
 >
 >
 > One site will work unless the volume discounts are large enough to
 > create negative vibes for the private consumer.

Ideal use for (the much discussed of late) subdomains ?

Neil<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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Doc O'Leary wrote:
 > In article <WOidnf3Ebb8SlKPd4p2dnA.RemoveThis@giganews.com>,
 > "BenignVanilla" <bvREMOVE.RemoveThis@tibetanbeefgarden.com> wrote:
 >
  >> I have a customer that markets his products both to private
  >> customers, and to corporate customers.
 > ...
 > Your customer should not have to figure out your business model just
 > to give you money. I want a PC that supports over 2GB of RAM, and I
 > shouldn't have to puzzle out Dell's damn corporate structure system
 > so that I can buy one from them.

You're looking at the wrong site ;o)

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/Current+Products?OpenAgent&brand=ESERVER&series=X225" target="_blank">http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/Current+Products?OpenAgent&bran...SERVER&</a>

--
William Tasso<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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"BenignVanilla" <bvREMOVE.TakeThisOut@tibetanbeefgarden.com> wrote in message
news:WOidnf3Ebb8SlKPd4p2dnA@giganews.com...
 > I have a customer that markets his products both to private customers, and
 > to corporate customers. The products are basically the same, the pitch is
 > just different, quantities, etc. Does anyone have some thoughts on
building
 > a site for such a beast? Should we have two sites? Just one site with a
 > cover that leads to two seperate areas? Just one site, period?
 >
 > My concern is that a corporate customer may be turned off by the site if
 > they see non-commercial stuff, and non-commercial users may be turned off
if
 > they see commercial stuff. Any thoughts?


Some sites have separate "entrances" - one for retail/personal, one for
wholesale/corporate, etc.

--
~ange

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.angelicious.com" target="_blank">http://www.angelicious.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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"BenignVanilla" <bvREMOVE.TakeThisOut@tibetanbeefgarden.com> wrote in message news:<WOidnf3Ebb8SlKPd4p2dnA.TakeThisOut@giganews.com>...
 > I have a customer that markets his products both to private customers, and
 > to corporate customers. The products are basically the same, the pitch is
 > just different, quantities, etc. Does anyone have some thoughts on building
 > a site for such a beast? Should we have two sites? Just one site with a
 > cover that leads to two seperate areas? Just one site, period?
 >
 > My concern is that a corporate customer may be turned off by the site if
 > they see non-commercial stuff, and non-commercial users may be turned off if
 > they see commercial stuff. Any thoughts?

Hi BV,

If you really want to stick with one site, either stick with
subdomains -- corporate.mysite.com, homeusers.mysite.com, etc. If
this doesn't work, make your site geared more towards hyping the
product. Show it off, what can it do, how will it benefit you
(generically). If the product for corporate and consumer are the
same, then this will work.

When someone wants to know pricing and get more into the product, have
a form they fill out where they select whether they are corporate or
home user. From that point, forward them to the appropriate site.
Unless someone fills out the form twice, then they'll only see the
info you direct them to.

If you truly don't want corporate folks from seeing the home-user
areas and vice versa, two seperate sites or at least two sub domains
are your only option.

My opinion...

Alex.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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