Why Relaunch?

            They exact reasons sits relaunch often stem from their individual histories, but there are three general motivators : enhancing technical features, creating a new or different brand image, and giving the site a fresh look. Often two or even all three of these factors are involved in decision to relaunch upgrade.

Technical Upgrades. At one level, of course, all changes to a Web site have technical ramifications but relaunches based on technical features ramifications but relaunches based on technical features are concerned with offering new functions, new applications easier navigation, and and so on. These upgrades have tended to take different deforms as the Web has evolved. Many of the earliest relaunches by large corporations were migrating from the so-called brochure ware of text-and image descriptive sites to more interactive models, many featuring personalization options that allowed users to create accounts and store personal preferences and information on the site. A further extension of this was much celebrated (and sometimes later lamented) push toward e-commerce, enabling online transaction of all sorts.  Behind the scenes, such revisions were sometimes related to the adoption of customer relationship management (CRM) systems and advanced application servers from vendors like BEA, IBM, Oracle, and sun.

            If the benefits of a technical upgrade are new front-and back end capabilities, the drawback can be in a bumpy transition. Retooling a large site can be exceedingly complicated and may lead to unexpected problems, as was the case in a publicized failure during an ambitious relaunch of eBay.com in 1999.  The company didn’t devote adequate staffing to the project, and the result was costly downtime in which visitors could not use the sit or all of its function.

Rebranding- Creating a new brand image-or significantly revising and existing one-is a weighty marketing decision , usually separate from any technical considerations.  Companies face rebranding, for example when the merge or party to an acquisition, when their marketing results are substantially below potential, or when they adopt a new marketing or commerce strategy. The risk is of course that new brand image will alienate the market and cause the company to lose some of the equity it had established in its brand.  When confronted with change, customers often adopt an agnostic, even wary stance, requiring  the company to demonstrate to them again that its brand is worth their loyalty and high regard.  For instance, long flash animations on the home page a trend of the late 1990s as the flash language and higher-speed connections came into vogue-are widely considered annoyances that may drive some visitors away.

            In situations like mergers and acquisitions, however, the company has little choice but to relaunch in order to reflect the new identity of combined firm. Here the relaunch  is most likely party of an integrated marketing program aimed at raising awareness of the new company and articulating its value new propositions to potential costumers; Web content may be reinforced by advertising and publicity efforts.