Jaguar Australia
Jaguar is a luxury car manufacturer.
Challenge
To provide timely information.
To create a distinctive Web presence.
To empower non-technical employees.
Benefits
· Reduced development time and expense. Lowered maintenance costs.
· Empower non-technical employees to update the site.
· Created a fast-loading site that reflects the Jaguar image.
· Site receives an average of 3,100,000 page views per month.
Project Details
Jaguar Australia launched a stunning rich media Web site that delivers the same stylish design and incomparable performance for which its cars are renowned. The site not only achieves new levels of functionality, but also aesthetically embodies Jaguar's distinguished brand, styling, and overall marketing strategy.
Jaguar Australia commissioned Monde Online to develop the site, which was built and deployed with Macromedia ColdFusion. The online agency used Macromedia Flash, FreeHand, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks to design the site.
With its intuitive tag-based language and integrated database and debugging tools, ColdFusion dramatically accelerates the Web development process and makes site maintenance a snap.
"The secret to providing timely information for the entire Web site is Macromedia ColdFusion," said Monde Online Managing Director Justin Flynn. "ColdFusion enabled us to build a site with a fully functional administration system, which empowers Jaguar Australia staff to publish the latest information to the Web site. This ensures the information contained in the site is fresh, relevant, and useful."
Facilitating the Buying Experience
Providing direct access to Jaguar Australia and the Jaguar dealer network, the site gives existing and future customers a fast, effective medium from which to gather information, not only about Jaguar cars, but also about the Jaguar brand and experience.
According to Liane McGrath, Marketing Manager for Jaguar Australia: "The site has become a powerful business platform. It offers increased levels of customer service and delivers information in an aesthetically pleasing way that embodies Jaguar's core marquee values and distinctive styling. Macromedia solutions are an important part of the site's success."
Visitors to Jaguar Australia can search for information on cars and then link directly to the dealer section, from which they can e-mail the dealership for more information or to schedule a test drive, hence driving retail sales through established dealers. Additionally, the site is e-commerce enabled and allows visitors to purchase Jaguar collection items and gifts online.
Targeting existing Jaguar owners and potential Jaguar owners (including Jaguar and other automotive enthusiasts), the site also serves journalists. Registered journalists can access media materials, including print-ready images, through the site's Resource Center. And once registered, journalists automatically receive email with direct links to the site when any new information or media releases are posted.
In the future, Jaguar plans to add a marketing and sales resource center for dealers, from which dealers can access advertising plans, direct marketing campaigns, sales figure,s and the latest creative materials.
Taking the High Road with Macromedia Integrated Solutions
Together, Macromedia integrated solutions enabled Monde Online to quickly build and deliver a rich media site for Jaguar Australia.
According to Flynn, Macromedia Flash was key to the site's success. "It's the best solution for extending the strong Jaguar brand online," said Flynn. "It allows us to develop sophisticated rich media that downloads quickly even over slow dial-up connections." Additionally, more than 334 million Web users have Flash Player installed and can immediately view Macromedia Flash content.
Monde designers used Dreamweaver to develop the site's structure, FreeHand to create sophisticated illustrations (which were then imported to Macromedia Flash), and Macromedia Fireworks to create and compress hundreds of site graphics. Designers also used Fireworks to create animation for the HTML portion of the site.
Saving precious development time, Monde Online uses ColdFusion to dynamically generate and deliver content. In fact, using ColdFusion, the team inputs content once and the content is automatically produced in HTML and in Flash (visitors to the site can select between the Flash and HTML version).
Lowering Maintenance Costs—Empowering Employees
Monde Online created a customized publishing system to allow non-technical Jaguar staff to update all content of the Jaguar Australia Web site easily and instantly. The system is template driven; all the pages are already formatted so the text areas function like a word processor. This allows great flexibility in adding content while at the same time maintaining the aesthetic integrity of the site.
The system also allows an unlimited number of users to have access to only one or more sections of the publishing system. The 'chief editor' can allocate responsibly of specific sections (or single pages) to different departments within Jaguar. The passwords can be edited as often as requested by the 'chief editor' who can also easily delete certain users if necessary.
"The ability to update information quickly and controlling the total cost of ownership of the site—both of which ColdFusion facilitated—were important factors in the Web site development," said McGrath.
Jaguar believes the Web will be increasingly important in the buying process of potential customers. Research into the Jaguar S-TYPE target market showed 90% have Internet access, 44% use the Internet to gather information and 25% have purchased items from the Internet.
"Our marketing strategy highlights the need to update our site and keep it relevant, fresh and newsworthy. We can do that because Macromedia products are very easy to use. You don't have to be technically-minded and the ease and speed with which we can utilize them is fabulous," concluded McGrath.
Site Summary
Jaguar Australia
250 Victoria Street
Wetherill Park NSW 2164
Macromedia Products:
Macromedia ColdFusion, ColdFusion Studio
Macromedia Flash, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, FreeHand
Hardware:
IBM X-330 Series
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 2000
Database:
Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 SP2
Size of Database:
130MB
Development Team:
8 team members
Site Traffic:
3,103,849 hits per month
Macromedia Alliance Partner:
Monde Online Agency
Industry:
Automotive
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