Chamber Well Positioned for Twenty-First Century Marketing

Monday, February 28th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Remember the old days, when all an advertiser had to do to get your attention was come up with a few lines of clever copy, add some graphics or lyrics, and broadcast its message through traditional media? Of course, traditional marketing and advertising have never been easy, and in light of ad campaigns forever imprinted in our memory banks, the old fashioned approach is often effective. But you can't argue with the fact that traditional marketing is a one-way street. The manufacturer or distributor develops a message and force-feeds it to the marketplace in hopes that people will respond with their checkbooks.

The Internet has opened up a whole new ball game. No longer do manufacturers and distributors have a monopoly on knowledge. Today, anyone with a mouse can access information and make informed decisions on just about anything, from cars to political campaigns. Marketing has become a two-way street, and consumers hold the trump card. Organizations unable to meet the demands of sophisticated consumers by developing an effective identity or, in today's vernacular, a market brand often find their market position eroding in favor of competitors that have mastered the rules of the twenty-first century marketplace.

In its ongoing effort to enhance membership value and provide services to the business community, the Tulsa Chamber has come up with a few trump cards of its own. The Chamber's focus on its Internet presence paid off when the editors of Britannica.com selected the Chamber's Convention and Visitors Bureau web site (www.tourism.tulsachamber.com) as one of the best on the Internet in terms of quality, accuracy of content, presentation and ease of use. The award graphic is now displayed on the CVB home page, and if you search for "Tulsa" on Britannica.com's site, a wealth of information on Tulsa and Oklahoma appears at the top of the screen.

"By providing online information in a high-quality format that is easy to access, we're giving consumers what they need to make informed decisions in this case, decisions about visiting Tulsa," says Chamber Vice President Suzann Stewart.

Another case in point is the Chamber's relationship with NationJob, widely acknowledged as the nation's leading online job recruitment service. By logging on to the Chamber's web site (www.tulsachamber.com) and clicking on "Employment", visitors enter NationJob's extensive listing of high-quality candidates and job openings. "Our focus has always been on the needs of our customers," said NationJob CEO Ralph Hejlik during a recent visit to the Tulsa Chamber. "Instead of just giving them an interface to type jobs into, our people help them manage their information in whatever way is most convenient for the customer." The Chamber is currently working with NationJob to develop a full-blown community sponsorship program that will create even more hiring opportunities for Tulsa employers frustrated by today's tight job market.

"Thanks to increasing sophistication in our analytical tools, we know on a minute-by-minute basis how many people are logging on, how they're doing it, and what they're looking for," says Chamber Multimedia manager Don Sibley. In January, for example, the Chamber web site experienced 24,300 user sessions. The most commonly accessed pages included the Chamber's homepage and the Convention and Visitors Bureau's homepage. The business directory was accessed 1,905 times, and NationJob was close behind with 1,837 hits. The web site's busiest moment in January came when 38 users were logged on simultaneously.

It's interesting to note that AOL provides the browser of choice for Chamber web site users. Nearly 50 percent of sessions in January were courtesy of AOL. Microsoft Internet Explorer placed second with nearly 30 percent, and Netscape came in a distant third at just under 15 percent. Yahoo, AltaVista and Infoseek were the most active search engines; together, they were used by over 75 percent of visitors.

And where are all these cyberspace visitors coming from? The top five domestic points of origin in January were Virginia, Oklahoma, California, Texas and Washington, DC. Principal visitors from other continents logged on in Argentina, Norway, Japan, Australia and South Africa. Surprisingly, Canada accounted for only 66 visits.

"This kind of data is invaluable in developing marketing plans for the Chamber and the business community it represents," says Matt Pivarnik, Vice President of Organization Marketing. "And as the number of web site visits continues to increase, we will devote more resources to enhancing our Internet presence."

Will the Chamber abandon traditional strategies in marketing its programs and services? Of course not. Yet one thing's for sure: More thought will be given to integrating traditional and high-tech strategies in an effort to better serve Tulsa's business community.