Mitsubishi stakes new territory in cyberland
Mitsubishi announced today that it has a brand-spankin'-new web site that upgrades the consumer experience both on the research and purchase sides. It also bulks up real-time capabilities for dealer leads, hopefully meaning more sales for the underperforming automaker.
The company tapped IBM for its Websphere Application Servers, Microsoft for its SQL Server 2005 database servers and other third-party vendors. Organic, Mitsubishi's digital marketing agency, spent seven months developing the new site, incorporating usability research from J.D. Power's recent Website Evaluation Study.
"Our new web site creates a much more dynamic experience for consumers who are looking to buy their next vehicle from Mitsubishi Motors," said Rich Donnelson, director, Relationship Marketing Mitsubishi Motors North America. "The intuitive, interactive tools on the site will help visitors learn about our products in several ways including matching our product attributes with their primary buying motivations like performance, safety, appearance and comfort. This is all achieved through an engaging and visually appealing platform."
It would appear that this is correct -- the page for the 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse, for example, boasts the vehicle's big horsepower numbers, stellar stero system and performance tuning. The Endeavor's page focuses on the utility, safety and entertainment features that the likely buyers will want.
We'll see if the site provides the dealer leads Mitsu is looking for, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.
[Source: Mitsubishi]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
frumin 3:36PM (9/27/2006)
Design and research my ass. The site is unbearably slow on a quad core G5 power mac.
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Dan 3:36PM (9/27/2006)
I guess if "dynamic experience" means clunky flash-based navigation then job well done.
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skaz 3:44PM (9/27/2006)
frumin: Might want to find out what's dragging you down, then. It's just fine on this P4 2.4 non-HT that I'm at.
But, I agree -- I despise how car companies use flash for everything. I've got a P4 1.6 laptop at home that does everything I need it to except skim car sites. They abuse flash worse than anyone else.
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George 4:51PM (9/27/2006)
Unfortunately Mitsubishi's web site is still ridiculously slow.
Fire the entire web department!
Crap web site.
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Doogs 4:41PM (9/27/2006)
Man. All that money spent on a pretty new site, and the Build & Price function remains a boring buffet of checkboxes. Nowhere close to the experience of building a Mini or VW.
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jk 4:44PM (9/27/2006)
wow, I'm really surprised to see them mixing websphere and ms sql, that's not that common. Usually if you're going to go with MS SQL you go with .NET through the whole thing.
Whatever, the car still does nothing for me.
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Tom T. 4:58PM (9/27/2006)
I agree with y'all. I'm a bit of a Mitsu fan and I can't find a variety of things that used to be easy to find. It's more eye-catching on the surface, but past that, bleh.
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bierman 5:00PM (9/27/2006)
Looks fine to me and, even though not a flash fan, the site's not nearly as clunky as some entertainment or other car sites. I think the industry tries too hard to re-create the flashy brochure look and feel.
Must be you dial up 20th century people having speed issues. Site seems fine and navigates well.
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Lee 5:30PM (9/27/2006)
I think it's pretty nice. I have no speed issues with it, using a 2GHz Dual G5 on broadband.
Lately it's popular to dis websites that use a lot of flash. There doesn't necessarily have to be a legitimate reason.
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dawookie 5:12PM (9/27/2006)
sheot..everyone else has flash..suby n stuff..runs fine on my machine..good to have optical lines!!! zoom zoom
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Eric 5:23PM (9/27/2006)
I still don't get how Mitsu is getting away with blatantly lying about the ride height on the Eclipse. In real life and in other photography on the web you can see that the car has a ton of gap between the tire and the fender. Mitsu seems to have digitally altered all of their photos of the car such that this gap doesn't exist.
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Biggsaw 5:55PM (9/27/2006)
Does this poster even like cars?
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WRC05 6:12PM (9/27/2006)
very nice website, i like it. BTW, slow loading webpages on your crazy fast computer means you have shitty ISP, not Mitsu's fault :)
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Bimmo 6:35PM (9/27/2006)
Hey not bad. Saw this other Mitsubishi site, seems to be from Down Under, pretty cool 3D stuff for a car website, check it out - http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com.au/red
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EquinsuOcha 7:33PM (9/27/2006)
#14 - Wow. That Australian red website is awesome. It makes the new one look lame.
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Ekow 11:18PM (9/28/2006)
Didn't really read the post above...but the site has a section called 25th anniversary...it basically points out that every positive thing mitsu ever did was around performance variants in their cars...
Not really sure why they spend their time making middle of the road cars....they should just focus on what they do right...performance vehicles
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Meek 9:45AM (9/28/2006)
Where is the section about their jihad?
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