A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

6 

Financial  to   non-  financial  measures. Through reviewing competitive intelligence sources 

such as company reports or tax submissions additional information may be available on 

turnover and profit generated by digital channels. But other  forward-  looking aspects of 

Figure 8.11

Benchmark comparison of corporate websites

Source: Bowen Craggs & Co (www.bowencraggs.com).

Pos

Company

Construction

maximum score

  1    Siemens 

  2    Royal Dutch Shell

  3    BP

  4    Nokia

  5    AstraZeneca

        Total

  7    IBM

  8    ING

  9    UBS

10    General Electric

60

47

46

41

44

48

44

41

43

37

42

Message

48

40

41

39

36

33

39

36

40

36

37

Contact

12

10

7

10

8

9

11

11

8

6

10

Serving'>Serving

society

32

27

26

28

26

20

25

23

22

20

25

Serving

investors

32

21

22

27

24

20

27

26

25

27

17

Serving the

media

32

28

21

18

24

27

12

26

21

22

19

Serving

job seekers

32

24

24

19

16

16

22

12

16

26

17

Serving

customers

32

24

22

25

25

27

21

24

22

20

24

Total

URL

Country

280

221

209

207

203

200

200

199

197

194

191

www.siemens.com

www.shell.com

www.bp.com

www.nokia.com

www.astrazeneca.com

www.total.com

www.ibm.com

www.ing.com

www.ubs.com

www.ge.com

Germany

Netherlands

UK

Finland

France

UK/Sweden

US

Netherlands

Switzerland

US

M08_CHAF6542_06_SE_C08.indd   342

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Chapter 8  Digital marketing

the company’s capability which are incorporated on the balanced scorecard measurement 

framework (see Chapter 4) should also be considered, including resourcing, innovation 

and learning.

7 

From user experience to expert evaluation. Benchmarking research should take two 

alternative perspectives, from actual customer reviews of usability to independent expert 

evaluations.

Now complete Activity 8.3 to gain an appreciation of how benchmarking competitor digital 

business services can be approached.

Activity 8.3

Competitor benchmarking

Purpose

To understand the services of a competitor website it is useful to benchmark and to 

assess the value of benchmarking.

Activity

You have been commissioned by a major company to evaluate the marketing effec-

tiveness of their online services in comparison with their competitors’. You have to 

present your findings on their services and how they can be improved in a  ten‑  minute 

PowerPoint presentation.

Choose a B2C industry sector such as airlines, book retailers, book publishers, CDs 

or clothing or for B2B a sector such as oil companies, chemical companies or con‑

struction industry companies.

Work individually or in groups to identify the type of information that should be avail‑

able from the website (and which parts of the site you will access it from) which will be 

useful in terms of competitor benchmarking. Once your criteria have been developed, 

you should then benchmark companies and summarise which you feel is making best 

use of the Internet medium.

Table 5.10 may also prove useful.

Answers to activities can be found at www.pearsoned.co.uk/chaffey