What Mauritian companies are missing on the web : the DCDM example.
I had a discussion with a Mauritian blogger yesterday who was explaining that no Mauritian company has really undergone a major advertising policy change to invest in online ads. Sure there are some communication agencies that would surely pay some rupees to get their clients on L’Express‘ site but none really has an aggressive online presence.
Sure enough, the market seems cold today because no one in Mauritius is bold enough to get in the ring alone and say: “I’ve invested thousands of rupees online”. Actually, the next step would be : “I’ve invested thousands of rupees online and now I’m getting contracts each worth at least thrice the price I invested.” This surely means that the company should be seeing the real power of a global marketing project where seo, sem and advertising are nothing but components.
I’m not a dreamer. I know that no Mauritian company is that far-sighted and that what is being said here will take years to become a reality. For example DCDM‘s site does not reveal the true power and driving skills of the company in Mauritius. Nothing has been invested in SEO or online presence and reputation. DCDM does not represent the Andersen group in Africa anymore but the meta description content has not been updated. Worse, a swift look in the code shows that the site has not been updated since 2001 :
Copyright (c) 1999 Thomas Brattli (www.bratta.com) Modified for the purpose of this site by DCDM's Web Development Team @ June 2001'
And don’t you try the French version of the site. I haven’t, by the way, seen any in depth traffic analysis device on the website. Correct me if I’m wrong, they might also be using much more advanced Business Intelligence tools like Web Trends.
Does this mean that the group has missed all the Web 2.0 bubble, no online interaction with the public, no online marketing? How can this be so when a company like this has a “marketing research” unit? This analysis of DCDM‘s online presence is just to show that Mauritian companies are still lagging 10 years (approximately for DCDM) behind while the world is moving faster than ever. How? By seeing the new market shares.
The Telegraph has published a very interesting chart this morning. Weights have shifted and, in 6 months, online advertising has gained more importance than TV adverts. It symbolises the change in habits and way of consuming. People have a different approach to the Web now.
Mauritian companies would gain so much more if they approached online marketing strategies for new fields to be exploited. These needs can be easily targeted when asking people what they would like to have in terms of services like in some of the comments available on the Web Design Bureau of Mauritius contest.
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Category: Management
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well i agree with u
Mauritius has not yet a real an e-culture
companies are not optimizing fully the web 2.0 tools. Companies websites dont even have a media or newsroom or a blog section or even try to create online community for their consumers…even our PR and communication strategies aren’t yet E…still the traditional PR stuff…
Thanks for the comment saps. From what I gather from the websites companies have in Mauritius it is just the claim that “we need to have a website…”. If you ask them why they need that website and for what purpose, only a few will have an answer, thus explaining the horrendous state in which some websites are.
E-culture as you said, is not real in Mauritius, and the shift to new media is not here yet. Just to finish it off, here are 3 screen-shots that speak for themselves.
Here having a website is still like having a mobile phone in the 1995. And even many of those who have it…its a piece of shame artifact.
Take a look at the government own site…or even all of the newspapers. I agree that maybe they hire idiots who claim to know how to work and thats why their site are such. Well the problem here is that either the guy(s) behind those sites are complete over confident fools who think they know much but infact know nothing or they are made only to steal scripts on forums (flash etc
) and pretend they invented it.
And funnily there is also this typical mentality of always trying to put thee own down in Mauritius. It has been cultivated since years I guess. As soon as an idiot here see his friend doing a work better he will go around trying to make an anti campaign against him (and of course pretend to be the “sage”…a bon entendeur salut!).
Well finally, as for advertising, many still think “reclam MBC” better. lol. Anyway on the other hand its good (in an egoist way)… while the fools run around looking for wood for fire, the wise looks for the gold scattered on the Island and when they realise that their Island is (will be WAS) the richest, it will be too late.
.-= Kurt Avish´s last blog ..Zoom on Jack Szostak – Nobel Winner 2009 =-.
well think all rely on our education system and values also…i used to work in a software company and there were some companies who didnt even know abt ERP or document management…for instance we don’t even used internet banking or other e-services that are relatively free…for instance not many people know about blogging here…we are still a passive audience when it comes to participate and contribute on any platform on the web 2.0… try this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g
hopefully one day Mauritius will fully be aware of the power of the web as a plug-in in either personal or business activity…
cheers
.-= saps´s last blog ..Discovering blogging =-.
Funny that you should talk about that. Last time I talked about educating the professionals and not only the masses I got greenly insulted. The Mauritian system is such: let others take the risk. If they succeed we’ll try to copy something just off them, we don’t know what but we’ll copy. If you scour the articles on this blog you’ll find a lot of places where I criticize the lack of professionalism of Mauritian web design companies. And you know what, in less than one year, nearly no company has “referencing” on its website anymore. In 2008-2009 they discovered the expression SEO!
I don’t think that companies will evolve that soon but they’ll surely lag a lot behind as it actually is.
BTW thanks for the link, simply amazing!
I have read just the post about the web design education and i agreed with u…for instance @UOM, we lack of many infrastructure and now the budget has been cut I don’t what kind of standard we going to have….i think people should adopt the positive criticism attitude instead of this attitude, it’s very common here…always hissing at the first hint of criticism…about your above comment, we are always lagging when it comes to new technology we have this copy-cat attitude as u clearly highlighted….cheers
.-= saps´s last blog ..Discovering blogging =-.