Internet Marketing
Internet Intranet Extranet
Evolution of technologies and communications approaches which have grown in importance since 2004-5. The main characteristics of Web 2.0 are that it typically involves Web services or interactive applications hosted on the web such as Flickr www.flickr.com . Google Maps http maps.aooale.com or blogging services such as Blogger.com or Typepad www.tvpepad.com Supporting participation - many of the applications are based on altruistic principles of community participation Encouraging creation of...
Key concepts of relationship marketing
'Consistent application of up to date knowledge of individual customers to product and service design which is communicated interactively in order to develop a continuous and long term relationship which is mutually beneficial' (Cram, 1994 , One-to-many communication between a company and potential customers, with limited tailoring of the message, The approach to Internet marketing function is based on customer behaviour within the target audience and then seeks to fulfil the needs and wants of...
Technological factors
New technologies that prompt businesses to reappraise their strategic approaches. Electronic communications are disruptive technologies that have, as we saw in Chapter 2, already caused major changes in industry structure, marketplace structure and business models. Consider a B2B organisation. Traditionally it has sold its products through a network of distributors. With the advent of e-commerce it now has the opportunity to bypass distributors and trade directly with customers via a web site...
Decision 6 Multichannel communications strategy
As part of creating an Internet marketing strategy, it is vital to define how the Internet integrates with other inbound communications channels used to process customer enquiries and orders and outbound channels which use direct marketing to encourage retention and growth or deliver customer service messages. For a retailer, these channels include in-store, contact-centre, web and outbound direct messaging used to communicate with prospects and customers. Some of these channels may be broken...
Reference Of Grehan 2004
Agrawal, V., Arjona, V. and Lemmens, R. (2001) E-performance the path to rational exuberance, McKinsey Quarterly, No. 1, 31-43. Atlas DMT (2004) The Atlas Rank Report How Search Engine Rank Impacts Traffic not dated . Atlas DMT Research (www.atlassolutions.com). Berthon, P., Lane, N., Pitt, L. and Watson, R. (1998) The World Wide Web as an industrial marketing communications tool models for the identification and assessment of opportunities, Journal of Marketing Management, 14, 691-704....
Marketing Intermediaries
Marketing intermediaries are firms that can help a company to promote, sell and distribute its products or services. In the Internet context, online intermediaries can be contrasted with destination sites which are typically merchant sites owned by manufacturers or retailers which offer information and products.
Online environment analysis
The situation or context in which an activity takes place needs to be analysed in order to understand the full meaning of the actions which are taking place in a given trading situation. This is particularly relevant to the online trading environment. As suggested, it has unusual characteristics which can impact on the way an organisation defines its marketing strategy and the activities in which it engages online. According to Finlay (2000) organisations operate in an environment that consists...
Decision 5 Multichannel distribution strategy
Assesses the strategic significance of the Internet relative to other communications channels and then deploys resources to integrate with marketing channels. The range of media used to communicate directly with a customer. The mechanism by which products are directed to customers either through intermediaries or directly. A traditional organisation with limited online presence. A business combining an online and offline presence. An organisation with principally an online presence. It does not...
Boo hoo learning from the largest European dotcom failure
'Unless we raise 20 million by midnight, boo.com is dead.' So said Boo.com CEO Ernst Malmsten, on 18 May 2000. Half the investment was raised, but this was too little, too late, and at midnight, less than a year after its launch, Boo.com closed. The headlines in the Financial Times, the next day read 'Boo.com collapses as Investors refuse funds. Online Sports retailer becomes Europe's first big Internet casualty.' The Boo.com case remains a valuable case study for all types of businesses, since...
Is a separate Internet marketing plan needed
Should an organisation have a separate e-marketing plan defining its strategic approach to the Internet, either for the organisation as a whole or for specific markets or brands Consider Figure 4.2. You will be familiar with the hierarchy of plans for an organisation, from a corporate or business plan which informs a marketing plan which in turn informs a communications plan and campaign briefs for different markets or brands. But where does the e-marketing plan fit Does the organisation need...
Countermediation Example
Figure 2.7 Disintermediation of a consumer distribution channel showing a the original situation, b disintermediation omitting the wholesaler, and c disintermediation omitting both wholesaler and retailer The creation of new intermediaries between customers and suppliers providing services such as supplier search and product evaluation. At the start of business hype about the Internet in the mid-1990s there was much speculation that widespread disintermediation would see the failure of many...
Tescocom uses the Internet to support its diversification strategy
Tesco, well known as Britain's leading food retail group with a presence also in Europe and Asia has also been a pioneer online. By September 2005 online sales in the first half of the year were 401 million, a 31 year-on-year increase, and profit increased by 37 to 21 million. Tesco.com now receives 170,000 orders each week. Soon it should reach an annual turnover of 1 billion online and is generally recognised as the world's largest online grocer. The Tesco.com site acts as a portal to most of...
Models of online buyer behaviour
Standard models of consumer buyer behaviour have been developed by Bettman 1979 and Booms and Bitner 1981 . In these models, consumers process marketing stimuli such as the 4 Ps and environmental stimuli according to their personal characteristics such as their culture, social group and personal and psychological make-up. Together these characteristics will affect the consumers' response to marketing messages. For the Internet marketer, a review of the factors influencing behaviour is...
Refining The Online Customer Experience At Dabs.com
Although the previous site was only updated 2 years ago, he describes the need to keep ahead of competitors as 'a cat and mouse thing'. But new site advances must be combined with competitive prices, Wall says Online customers are price-loyal, not retailer-loyal. The customer is only as loyal as the cheapest price they can pay for a product. It means your competitors are only ever one click away. We have to do everything to keep our customers on our site. Getting them to pay that price to you,...
Online web site promotion techniques
Online web site promotion techniques such as search engine marketing and banner advertising often take prominence when discussing methods of traffic building. But we start with using offline communications to generate site visitors since it is one of the most effective techniques to generate site traffic and the characteristics of offline media are suchthat they often have a higher impact and are more creative, which can help explain the online value proposition.
Making FMCG brands sizzle online
Large fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) organisations such as Unilever, Procter & Gamble or Masterfoods face many challenges when exploiting interactive communications. This case illustrates some of the following challenges The case for interactive spend is less clear than for companies with a transactional online presence since typically no sales can be directly generated online. Instead, these companies have to assess the role of their interactive communications in generating awareness, brand...
Psychographic segmentation for transactional ecommerce
Market research firm BMRB 2004 has developed this segmentation which is used to represent different attitudes to purchasing online. 1 Realistic Enthusiasts 14 2004, 15 1999 - characterised by an enthusiastic approach toward e-commerce but they typically like to see the product in real life before making a purchase and they often consider that finding the product to purchase is a difficult process. Examples of this include a willingness to use the Internet for purchases in excess of 500 they are...
Stage 3 Tools and techniques for collecting metrics and summarising results
Techniques to collect metrics include the collection of site-visitor activity data such as that collected from site log-files, the collection of metrics about outcomes such as online sales or e-mail enquiries and traditional marketing research techniques such as questionnaires and focus groups which collect information on the customer's experience on the web site. We start by describing methods for collecting site-visitor activity data and then review more traditional techniques of market...
Options for varying the core product
For some companies, there may be options for new digital products which will typically be information products that can be delivered over the web. Ghosh 1998 talks about developing new products or adding 'digital value' to customers. The questions he posed still prove useful today 1 Can I offer additional information or transaction services to my existing customer base For example, for a bookseller, providing reviews of customer books, previews of books or selling books online. For a travel...
Political factors
The political and regulatory environment is shaped by the interplay of government agencies, public opinion and consumer pressure groups such as CAUCE the coalition against unsolicited e-mail which were active in the mid-1990s and helped in pressurising for laws, www.cauce.org, and industry-backed organisations such as TRUSTe www.truste.org that promote best practice amongst companies. The political environment is one of the drivers for establishing the laws to ensure privacy and to collect...
External value chains and value networks
Reduced time to market and increased customer responsiveness can be achieved through reviewing the efficiency of internal processes and how information systems are deployed. However, these goals are also achieved through consideration of how partners can be involved to outsource some processes that have traditionally been considered to be part of the internal value chain of a company. Porter's original work considered both the internal value chain and the external value chain or network. Since...
Decision 1 Market and product development strategies
In Chapter 1, we introduced the Ansoff matrix as a useful analytic tool for assessing online strategies for manufacturers and retailers. This tool is also fundamental to marketing planning and it should be the first decision point since it can help companies think about how online channels can support their marketing objectives, but also suggest innovative use of these channels to deliver new products and more markets the boxes help stimulate 'out-of-box' thinking which is often missing with...
First Sale On Instagram
Agrawal, V., Arjona, V. and Lemmens, R. (2001) E-performance the path to rational exuberance, McKinsey Quarterly, No. 1, 31-43. Armstrong, A. and Hagel, J. (1996) The real value of online communities, Harvard Business Review, May-June, 134-41. Chaffey, D. (2004) E-permission marketing. Chartered Institute of Marketing 'What's new in marketing' e-newsletter, Issue 25. (www.wnim.com). Cram, T. (1994) The Power of Relationship Marketing Keeping Customers for Life. Financial Times Management,...
Site design and structure
The structures created by designers for web sites will vary greatly according to their audience and the site's purpose, but we can make some general observations about approaches to site design and structure and their influence on consumers. For example, Rosen and Purinton 2004 have assessed the design factors which influence a consumer based on questionnaires of a group of students . They believe there are some basic factors that determine the effectiveness of an e-commerce site. They group...
Become A Tiktok Influencer
Allen, E. and Fjermestad, J. (2001) E-commerce marketing strategies a framework and case analysis, Logistics Information Management, 14(1 2), 14-23. Includes an analysis of how the 4 Ps are impacted by the Internet. Baker, W., Marn, M. and Zawada, C. (2000) Price smarter on the Net, Harvard Business Review, February, 2-7. This gives a clear summary of the challenges and opportunities of Internet pricing. Ghosh, S. (1998) Making business sense of the Internet, Harvard Business Review,...
Performance management for Internet marketing
A process used to evaluate and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation and its processes. The process by which metrics are defined, collected, disseminated and actioned. To improve results for any aspect of any business, performance management is vital. As Bob Napier, Chief Information Office, Hewlett-Packard was reported to have said back in the 1960s, You can't manage what you can't measure. The processes and systems intended to monitor and improve the performance of an...
Customer persona and scenario analysis
A thumbnail summary of the characteristics, needs, motivations and environment of typical web site users. Alternative tasks or outcomes required by a visitor to a web site. Typically accomplished in a series of stages of different tasks involving different information needs or experiences. Creating personas for typical site visitors is a powerful technique for influencing the planning of online campaigns and the usability and customer centricity of a web site. Personas are essentially a...
Channel conflicts
A significant threat arising from the introduction of an Internet channel is that while disintermediation gives a company the opportunity to sell direct and increase profitability on products, it can also threaten distribution arrangements with existing partners. Such channel conflicts are described by Frazier (1999), and need to be carefully managed. Frazier (1999) identifies some situations when the Internet should only be used as a communications channel. This is particularly the case where...
Permission marketing
Permission marketing is a significant concept that underpins online CRM throughout management of the customer lifecycle. 'Permission marketing' is a term coined by Seth Godin. It is best characterised with just three (or four) words anticipated, relevant and personal and timely . Godin (1999) notes that while research used to show we were bombarded by 500 marketing messages a day, with the advent of the web and digital TV this has now increased to over 3000 a day From the marketing...
Stage models of the Internet marketing capability
A further perspective on assessing current usage of the Internet channel is to assess the current level of Internet services and integration of Internet marketing with other marketing activities. Stage models of capability delivered through the online presence assist in this evaluation. Companies that operate in a particular market tend to follow a natural progression in developing their web site to support their marketing activities. The following levels of Internet marketing can be identified...
The online value proposition
The aim of positioning is to develop a differential advantage over rivals' products as perceived by the customer. Many examples of differentiated online offerings are based on the lower costs in acquiring and retaining online customers which are then passed on to customers - to do this requires creation of a different profit centre for e-commerce operations. Examples include Retailers offering lower prices online. Examples Tesco.com price promotions on selected products , Comet discounts...
The balanced scorecard
Some larger companies will identify objectives for Internet marketing which are consistent with existing business measurement frameworks. Since the balanced business scorecard is a well-known and widely used framework it can be helpful to define objectives for Internet marketing in these categories. The balanced scorecard, popularised in a Harvard Business Review article by Kaplan and Norton 1993 can be used to translate vision and strategy into objectives and, then, through measurement...
Lastminutecom establishing and maintaining a competitive position
Retailing online renders one of the established mantras of the fixed location retailer 'location location location' redundant. So how are the new e-retailers establishing and maintaining a competitive position in the Internet's marketspace lastminute.com was an early leader with its development of a web site which operated as an online travel agent and retailer (see Figure 10.9). The company founded by Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman in 1998 has recently been acquired by Travelocity and...
The scope of Internet marketing strategy
When reviewing options for Internet marketing strategy, it is also useful to keep in mind that Internet strategy involves much more than the narrow focus of a strategy to develop web site services. Although this is part of Internet marketing strategy, marketers also examine broader issues of using the web, e-mail and databases strategically as communications and relationship-building tools which must integrate with other marketing communications. Internet strategy may also involve redesigning...
Approaches to implementing eCRM
E-CRM uses common approaches or processes to achieve online customer acquisition and retention. Refer to Figure 6.5 for a summary of a common, effective process for online relationship building to achieve the different stages of the customer lifecycle. In the following sections we proceed through the different stages in more detail.
Decision 3 Target marketing strategy
Evaluation and selection of appropriate segments and the development of appropriate offers. Identification of different groups within a target market in order to develop different offerings for each group. Deciding on which markets to target is a key strategic consideration for Internet marketing strategy in the same way it is key to marketing strategy. Target marketing strategy involves the four stages shown in Figure 4.12, but the most important decisions are Segmentation targeting strategy -...
Refining the online customer experience at dabscom
This case study highlights the importance placed on web site design as part of the customer experience by dabs.com which is one of the UK's leading Internet retailers of IT and technology products from manufacturers such as Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and Microsoft. Dabs.com was originally created by entrepreneur David Atherton in partnership with writer Bruce Smith (the name 'dabs' comes from the combined initials of their two names). Their first venture, Dabs Press was a publisher of...
Options for changing the extended product
When a customer buys a new computer, it consists not only of the tangible computer, monitor and cables, but also the information provided by the computer salesperson, the instruction manual, the packaging, the warranty and the follow-up technical service. These are elements of the extended product. Smith and Chaffey 2005 suggest these examples of how the Internet can be used to vary the extended product customer service see people, process and physical evidence incorporating tools to help users...
Internet strategy is a channel marketing strategy
We need to remember that an Internet marketing strategy is a channel marketing strategy which defines how a company should set channel-specific objectives and develop a differential channel-proposition and channel-specific communications consistent with the characteristics of the channel and consumer usage of it. The Internet marketing strategy determines the strategic significance of the Internet relative to other communications channels which are used to communicate directly with customers at...
Incidental and specific advertising of the online presence
Driving traffic to the web site is not a primary objective of the advert. Driving traffic to the web site or explaining the online proposition is a primary objective of the advert. Two types of offline advertising can be identified incidental and specific. Reference to the web site is incidental if the main aim of the advert is to advertise a particular product or promotion and the web site is available as an ancillary source of information if required by the viewer. Traditionally, much...