As I mentioned in the previous post, I have found technology to be extremely useful in planning our wedding. From the moment we got engaged, technology has served as a way to organize all of the tasks that need to be completed in planning a wedding. It is easy to become overwhelmed with everything involved in the wedding industry – especially online.
According to www.weddingbusinesstoday.com, the average wedding budget in 2009 was just over $28,000. If there are well over two million weddings that occur in the United States each year (www.theweddingreport.com), the wedding industry is certainly a lucrative business. As mentioned, it can be confusing to begin a wedding search online. If one searches for “online wedding services,” a site called www.topweddingsites.com emerges. I am most familiar with planning sites such as www.theknot.com (The Knot) and www.weddingchannel.com (Wedding Channel), but interestingly they were not listed among the first sites on www.topweddingsites.com. It is likely that those two sites did not invest in advertising on www.topweddingsites.com. In fact, The Knot and Wedding Channel are substitutes for www.topweddingsites.com, and it would not make sense for them to list information on that site.
One of the first tasks in planning the wedding was to use technology and develop a wedding website – one site where pertinent wedding information is stored and can be communicated to guests. When “Googling” wedding host sites, more than a few sites appear in the search results. We chose to use www.weddingchannel.com in an effort to use a site different than many of our friends. In addition to serving as a site for wedding guests, these sites give people planning weddings a host of industries to explore: planning checklists, articles about budgeting, venues, invitations, wedding apparel, local vendors (jewelers, photographers, catering, florists, etc), honeymoons and links to gift registries. As one can imagine, each industry mentioned is a major driver of the economy.
Advances in technology are changing the way businesses services are created and delivered. Ten years ago, I believe that people who were planning weddings would not have had nearly as much access to various vendors and businesses needed to plan the wedding. Today, it is as simple as spending some time in front of the computer researching businesses of choice.
Many of the wedding websites have developed rating systems for various services – affecting the way business is delivered and the way that customers react toward businesses. My fiancé and I researched several entertainment brokers online to find a band for the wedding. We found a specific broker on www.weddingwire.com that we liked, and we set up time to meet in person. One of the reasons that we decided to meet with Chris was that my fiancé found positive reviews of his business listed on the site. The broker with whom we met shared with my fiancé that he decided to pay for advertising on the two wedding websites on which he was already listed and receiving positive feedback. If he advertised on those sites, I believe that his ratings would appear even higher. I found this to be an interesting marketing tactic for him. I would have listed ads on sites where I was not yet listed, in an effort to reach more customers. However, his marketing tactics worked for us- we have decided to move forward with Chris. If we’re satisfied with his service of providing a band for the wedding, then we will need to rate his business positively after our wedding. Perhaps our positive rating will help someone else to select him as their entertainment broker.
Certainly rating systems published online are not always beneficial for businesses. While researching potential entertainment brokers, we consistently found negative reviews for one band, specifically of the band leader. We mentioned this negative rating to Chris, the entertainment broker with whom we met, and they are friendly. Chris explained why his friend may have received negative ratings. This example should serve as a warning – consumers should be wary of ratings online. Online ratings can certainly help guide where one may take his or her business, but perhaps a conversation is warranted before automatically ruling out those services.