Where's the LGic?

We recently had a dicusssion at work about the power of blogs for generating online sales. Whilst it is clear that Web 2.0 remains a buzz word for many businesses with a strong internet presence, few have maximised it's capabilities.

This evening, I saw a TV advert for the LG Freeview Playback TV. As I have been considering purchasing a flatscreen TV for some time, so naturally this caught me attention. I was unable to recall the URL from the commercial so I went to Google and searched for "LG Playback TV'S". The most relevant advert I clicked on was for the LG Blog. This site appeared to be an authentic blog from LG about product releases and news etc. Reading through the blog I became even more excited, by the way that the brand was portrayed and this made me even more keen on the product. In fact, in that moment I was psychologically prepared to make a purchase. If there wasa Buy Now option, I would have clicked on it.

The problem was, there was no mechanism in which to do so. I could not find any links on the LG Blog, back to the official LG Website. This make no sense to me. The power of the LG Blog is diluted by the lack of joined up thinking.

This leads me to ponder LG's objectives when originally deciding to create the blog. What did they expect to achieve? Why have they done it? How are they measuring the success? It frustrates me when organisations state brand building objectives over sales objectives. Why invest in building a brand if you don't intend to create any more sales?

Many organisations can be accused of jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon. In order to fully capitalise on the expanding user base and exciting tools available, businesses must incorporate Web 2.0 methods into existing sales strategy and reap the benefits of an integrated marketing approach.