Broadway, is a popular electronics retailer in Hong Kong. Recently, a survey found that it is one of Hong Kong’s top brands along with I.T and Ocean Park. Popular brands often have positive effects online. No longer will clueless people be clueless. They know what they are looking for; users will not search for “LCD monitor TV” and instead will do a “Sony Bravia”. The same is true for Broadway. If people know the brand they will use it instead of “electronic shop in Hong Kong” and wade through a variety of lower quality results.
However, when I tried a search for “broadway Hong Kong” its competitor shows up. What!??
Broadway Electronics: When Competitor Steals Your Traffic
As the screen capture shows up, Fortress website listing occupies the first two results and leaves searchers no choice but to go to its website.
What’s the problem? It’s either Broadway doesn’t care to put up a website or its existing website is simply unreachable to search engines that is why it doesn’t show up even for a phrase that is intended to this favorite brand. While I don’t think people who get directed to Fortress buy stuff there (they’d probably compare prices and decide to go to one of its shops if no comparable pricing alternative is found), it is also a missed online opportunity for Broadway to promote its brand.
What’s more, Broadway in Hong Kong is not only synonymous to electronics in Hong Kong. Broadway Circuit, a name that can easily be misunderstood as the formal name of the electronic shop, is in fact a cinema website. Another photo supplier named Broadway and a custom tailor company could probably complicate things.
What would you do then if a customer looks for you and searches your name. However since you can’t be found, they turned to your competitor. If your brand doesn’t show up on search results (for related queries) probably they see your competitors. Being a top brand is not enough for Broadway.
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:47 am
Hey elmer you’ve got a new look on you blog!
it’s true that Broadway isn’t really care the online present.
They probably forget large armies of their buyers coming from the mainland china rather than HK locals.
It’s said that most people in HK overlooked SEO or online marketing in general especially the very traditional boss.
August 2nd, 2008 at 8:19 am
Welcome back Proson!
I don’t know how to explain better than the last paragraph.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:26 pm
This is the first time I visit your blog. I agree with your comments about Broadway website. Many Hong Kong big brands spend a lot on TV ad, magazine ad but have very lousy and unprofessional website. Even though they don’t do online shopping, they should take online marketing more seriously.
Hope that you can write more about Hong Kong stuff in the future, thanks~
October 15th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Thanks for visiting and commenting Joseph, I plan to write more about Hong Kong related SEO articles.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Online shopping is now a easy way of buying anything which they want by using the internet.so people want to know more about this.
Its a nice post about the same thing.
Thanks
February 14th, 2009 at 4:25 am
I performed the exact search and was surprised to find Fortress in the first search result. There could be a few reasons why that may be happening
1) Fortress has overbid Broad way for google adwords or Fortress has added so many tags mentioning Broadway on their website that they come up ahead of Broadway.
2) Broadway could not bid for the keyword “Broadway” since it is so popular in the US and they lost track of time and before they realized Fortress has bid for the keyword.
3) Broadway is arrogant and believe in online advertizing.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:02 am
I’m a newcomer to HK and have noticed the exact same thing!
There are plenty of silo’d websites but no holistic approach to make use of SEO.
I want to buy an Xbox 360 and for the life of me can’t find any decent websites that could lead me to either Fortress or Broadway. I’ll probably end up going to 298 or 188… now isn’t that a missed opportunity for these electronic giants.
June 7th, 2009 at 10:31 am
What is a bid for a keyword?
June 14th, 2009 at 12:41 am
Dimitra, bid for a keyword is a term used in paid search. It is the maximum cost someone’s willing to pay for every click on the ad driven by the keyword.
@Pavan Reddy: Thank you for your ideas. 1) I think it’s got nothing to do with bidding for the keyword in AdWords since the ranking I described was in organic search results. Organic and paid search is independent of each other, right? 2) I’m not sure Fortress bid for a competitor’s keyword. 3) Being arrogant and and believing in online advertising shouldn’t be punished/rewarded with this outcome.
October 31st, 2009 at 11:53 pm
it’s called http://www.ibroadway.com.hk/
but you have to search Broadway Electronics Hong Kong to show Broadway Photo Supply
November 4th, 2009 at 7:50 am
I think that HK brands tend not to develop their online market because their physical shops are a lot more accessible to their target consumers than say for example, shops in New Zealand, where I currently live (and I was born in HK). I have been trying to do some price comparison for a netbook prior to my HK trip next month and find Fortress to be one of the few HK retail companies with a website that is of some use to a potential shopper.
I suppose it’s not a bad marketing plan for a local HK retail company because if I live in HK, it would only take me 15mins to get a shopping mall on foot. In New Zealand, it takes me 15mins by car to get to a shopping mall, which doesn’t always have all the shops that I want to visit.
Anyhow I’m off topic. Something’s wrong with the search engine or more likely, someone’s doing dirty tricks to get Fortress on top of the list of search results. And by the way, Broadway has better customer service than Fortress.
November 29th, 2009 at 3:05 am
The panasonic viera is one of the hottest gifts this Christmas, they’re selling out fast. I found mine at http://astore.amazon.com/50-inch-lg-hdtv-for-sale-20