The Promise and Challenges of Online Marketing
Online marketing continues to offer both great promise and many challenges for the future. Its most ardent apostles still envision a time when the Internet and online marketing will replace magazines, newspapers, and even stores as sources for information and buying. Most marketers, however, hold a more realistic view. To be sure, online marketing will become a successful business model for some companies—Internet firms such as Amazon, com, eBay, and Google; and direct marketing companies such as Dell. However, for most companies, online marketing will remain just one important approach to the marketplace that works alongside other approaches in a fully integrated marketing mix.
Spam
Unsolicited, unwanted commercial e-mail messages.
Despite the many challenges, companies large and small are quickly integrating online marketing into their marketing strategies and mixes. As it continues to grow, online marketing will prove to be a powerful direct marketing tool for improving sales, communicating company and product information, delivering products and services, and building deeper customer relationships.
Author I Although we mostly Comment | benefit from direct marketing, like most other things in life, it has its dark side as well. Marketers and customers alike must guard against irritating or harmful direct marketing practices.
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IF YOU ANSWER "YES" TO ANY OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS, YOU MAY BE GETTING
Are you about to cash a check from an item you sold on ] the Internet, such as a car, boat, Jewelry, ate?
| « Is It the result of communicating with someone by email?
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IF YOU ANSWER "YES" TO ANY OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS, YOU MAY BE GETTING
SCAMMED!
Are you about to cash a check from an item you sold on ] the Internet, such as a car, boat, Jewelry, ate?
| « Is It the result of communicating with someone by email?
| Did It arrive via an overnight delivery service?
i Is It from a business or Individual account thai Is different l from the person buying your Item or product?
; is the »mount for more than the Item's selling price?
| Are you sending money overseas?
| •!• Old you win an International lottery you didn't enter?
« * Have you been asked to pay money to receive an • Inheritance from another country?
❖ Are you receiving a commission for accepting money trans . '"IA»' PayPal account?
To report an online crime, go to:
">* www.IC3.gov
A VICTIM OF IDENTITY THEFT!
Internet fraud has multiplied in recent years. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's Internet Crime Complaint Center provides consumers with a convenient way to alert authorities to suspected violations.
Public Policy Issues in Direct
Marketing (pp 541-543)
Direct marketers and their customers usually enjoy mutually rewarding relationships. Occasionally, however, a darker side emerges. The aggressive and sometimes shady tactics of a few direct marketers can bother or harm consumers, giving the entire industry a black eye. Abuses range from simple excesses that irritate consumers to instances of unfair practices or even outright deception and fraud. The direct marketing industry has also faced growing invasion-of-privacy concerns, and online marketers must deal with Internet security issues.
Continue reading here: Irritation Unfairness Deception and Fraud
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