Question

Topic: Website Critique

Advice On Website - Marketing To Cultural Creatives

Posted by Anonymous on 11/13/2006 at 2:27 PM ET 500 Points
Hello everyone,

You were so helpful to me on my last question, that I decided to post another one. This feedback is wonderful!

Overview- I have a free cause-based social networking site for pet lovers, where every pet can have their own homepage and blog.

The crowd I want to attract, are cultural creatives who want to make an impact in this world, who value peace, their environment, and animals. I want them to have a place where they can connect, be creative, and know that they are coming together, and impacting causes that are important to them.

We have created 9 PetBoogaloo cartoon characters, who each have a story, a personality, and a cause that they represent. Our intention is to get these characters known, and eventually license them . We'd like to be aligned with a larger corporation who is interested in improving their triple bottom line, and sees that PetBoogaloo is a brand /partner that is committed to that.

Here a pretty good description of a cultural creative:
https://www.evomedia.com/other/cultural_creatives.htm

With that in mind, would you be so kind as to give me your feedback? If you would look on both the homepage at https://www.PetBoogaloo.com and at the cause-based page at https://www.petboogaloo.com/causes.html and give me your thoughts and suggestions. Should I put more focus on the causes on the homepage? Also, what do you think would help attract and convert more people?


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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 11/13/2006 at 9:29 PM Accepted
    I agree. You want to have a faster call to action. I am sitting there wondering, what is the catch.

    Maybe you are generating an ad-driven business model.

    Your cartoons, while cute, are hard to take seriously, but would offer a nice place for children to post items on their pets. Then do a more serious adult verions. Your audience takes itself much more seriously. Cartoons belittle their core vales.

  • Posted on 11/14/2006 at 4:36 AM Accepted
    From that point of view- If you need to make people come over consistently have a forum similar to Mktg profs but on lines of pet care,concerns, training, food habits, recommended brands etc.

    Pet brands can pilot on your site and do price tests on your bloggers, offer discounts, get feedback etc before their launch.

    Have a pet story corner, with the uploaded pet pics- have a 'pet of the month' photo pic. Use your mascots to hand over the prizes. Make the mascots like the thought leaders in their own animal category.Have the certificates carry the mascots. Start a comic strip also in which viewers can contribute. That will make animal lovers come back and check on their postings, pet of the month, comic strips etc. Your characters are cute and lovable- have options of printing them on t shirts, mugs etc.

    For the charities and causes that you wish to support- that needs to be with organisations of repute. If you wish to accept donations make your site secure for credit cards. Also for the past charities/ causes that you have supported make some data available on amount of money donated, people who signed up etc.

    As a pet lover i like the site- but currently there is not much that will make me come back here again and again. Pls work on that.
  • Posted on 11/15/2006 at 4:04 AM Accepted
    HI

    First of all congrats for putting up a neat site. It looks attractive. When I see it from a creative guy's point of view I may even fall in love with it. Kids would love it too and the blogging may become pretty happening and a beehive of activity too.

    But I have serious reservations from one angle. And that is the perspective of someone who wants to donate. If I want to give money for charity I really wanna know where exactly is my money going, what has the money of the others been utilized for, what difference has it made and stuff like that. Your site fails to communicate this info to me!! As a person visiting your site to actually donate, either people cant figure out what you do for the environmental causes or they have to make a lot of effort going through each and every link and then get some hazy info.

    My suggestion is that you should dedicated a separate page where you give me all this info. Show me where exactly can I as a person who wants to donate will be making a difference. Provide a link of this page on your main page.

    I think this should make a sea difference to your clientele.

    Correct me if I am wrong.

    Looking for your feedback so that I can make my suggestions more meaningful.

    Best of Luck!!
  • Posted on 11/15/2006 at 4:14 AM Accepted
    Agree with all that has been said before. From a purely web design point of view, I think that you need to do a little more work. The cuteness of the characters and photos in the banner and throughout just seems a little 'home made'. This is not to say that is a bad thing, but if you are looking to make corporate millions by aligning with other companies then perhaps you might have to look a little more professional.

    If you look at any example of 'cute' being succesfully employed on the net, you will see that there is a special mix. Usually the cute factor is only sparingly used, assuming of course you are targeting an adult market.

    I am a pet owner and I love the idea though.
  • Posted by Frank Hurtte on 11/15/2006 at 1:08 PM Member
    your site is not opening -- is there something wrong
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