Attracting and Retaining Visitors

Do a quick search to see the number of web hosting companies offering their services on the internet. Make a simple chart of who they are, what they offer, their pricing, and how much they assist in creating and maintaining your website. What are the costs? How would you evolve a strategy that makes sense for you as you consider an online business strategy or a combination of in-store and online purchase capabilities?

Types of attractors

The entertainment park

Web sites in this category engage visitors in activities that demand a high degree of participation while offering entertainment. Many use games to market products and enhance corporate image. These sites have the potential to generate experiential flow, because they provide various degrees of challenge to visitors. They are interactive and often involve elements and environments that promote telepresence experiences. The activities in the entertainment park often have the character of a contest, where awards can be distributed through the network (e.g., the Disney site). These attractors are interactive, recreational, and challenging. The potential competitive advantages gained through these attractors are high traffic potential (with repeat visits) and creation or enforcement of an image of a dynamic, exciting, and friendly corporation.

Examples in this category include:

  • GTE Laboratories' Fun Stuff part of its Web site, which includes Web versions of the popular games MineSweeper, Rubik's cube, and a 3D maze for Web surfers to navigate;
  • The Kellogg Company's site lets young visitors pick a drawing and color it by selecting from a palette and clicking on segments of the picture;
  • Visitors to Karakas VanSickle Ouellette Advertising and Public Relations can engage in the comical Where's Pierre game and win a T-shirt by discovering the whereabouts of Pierre Ouellette, KVO's creative big cheese ;
  • Joe Boxer uses unusual effects and contests for gaining attention. For solving an advanced puzzle, winners gain supplies of virtual underwear. Instructions such as "Press the eyeball and you will return to the baby," are a blend of insanity and advertising genius.