Electronic marketing, the newkid

on the block
Sally Harridge-March
The Business School, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK
Keywords Electronic commerce, Retailing, Internet marketing
Abstract During the last decade, many organisations have developed some form of Internet
presence. This paper considers electronic marketing, the latest type of marketing, using the
familiar framework of the seven Ps of marketing product, price, promotion, place (distribution),
process, physical evidence, and people in an attempt to evaluate electronic marketing and its
potential contribution to marketing in general. The paper concludes that whilst not every marketer
embraces the use of the Internet, this new kid on the block has become an accepted part of
marketing activity. The paper concludes that electronic marketing does not yet have the potential to
replace traditional marketing efforts. It should be seen as a valuable and complementary tool, and
managers should embrace new technology in order to create greater value for customers.
Introduction
During the last decade, many organisations have developed some form of Internet
presence (Doherty et al., 1999; Phelan, 1996; Reibstein, 2002). Some rms have thought
that the medium has presented commercial potential (Hackney and Grifths, 2002;
Pandya and Arenyeka-Diamond, 2002), while others have believed that its use was
complementary to their company activities (Nicholson et al., 2002). Rettie (2002, p. 254)
argues that the Internet is changing culture, creating a virtual culture which has its
own form of manners (netiquette), members of society (netizens) and method of
expressing emotions (emoticons) for those who have matured in the net generation.
Ward et al. (1998) have predicted that by the end of the rst quarter of the 21st century,
interactive technologies will have become a mainstream component of shopping for
most consumer durables. De Kare-Silver (2000) goes as far as to suggest that
interactive technologies are doing away with the need for people to visit shops,
although Bromage (2001) cites the prediction by Forrester Research (2000, p. 44; cited
in Dembeck, 2000) that 5% of all European retail sales will be made online by 2005.
This does not seem to be a very large percentage, especially when one considers that
the number of UK regular home web users has risen to 16.5m (Gibson, 2002). Time
spent by home web users is also increasing, presumably because they are searching for
and using websites more.
Doherty et al. (1999) suggest that much of the Internet activity by retailers in the
sector is experimentation and that overall Internet involvement is low. They consider
that this may be because the high set-up costs with high risk of potential failure
prevent many rms from initiating such projects. Despite this, many retailers have
rushed to have an online presence, some with little or no guidance (Schoenbachler and
Gordon, 2002).
Providers of services (e.g. nancial services, travel, and property sales) as well as
providers of physical goods have also found the Internet to be invaluable to their
success. Whatever the potential of the channel for completing transactions, it is clear
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/res earchregister www.em eraldinsight .com/0263-4503.htm
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Marketing Intelligence & Planning
Vol. 22 No. 3, 2004
pp. 297-309
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-4503
DOI 10.1108/02634500410536885
that there are many marketing functions with which the Internet can assist and,
perhaps, also help to establish competitive advantage (Robins, 2000).
Whiteley (2000) suggests that because the Internet is interactive, it can assist with
all phases of the trade cycle pre-sale, execution, settlement and after-sale. Those
implementing electronic commerce do not appear to have changed their thinking from
wishing to gain competitive advantage to achieving operational benets from more
efcient operations (Graham et al., 1996). Paradoxically, for some, the reverse is also
true and they have created competitive advantage solely by their implementation of
electronic marketing (for example Dell, Amazon, etc.). Indeed, Forrester Research
(2000) suggests that European e-commerce will grow at triple-digit rates over the
period to 2005 to a total of more than $1 trillion. In the UK by 2001, over a third of
adults in Great Britain who accessed the Internet also purchased goods or services
through it (Rowlatt et al., 2002).
This means, of course, that two-thirds do not shop online, and some writers cite
uncertainty and/or risk as preventing consumers from doing so (Merriman et al., 2002).
Some companies have been criticized for apparently thinking that all Internet shoppers
are the same, instead of realizing that there are many reasons why a customer may
visit a site (Stell and Paden, 2002). This results, particularly, in a lack of commitment
for the purchase of high-involvement goods in this way. Trusting the provider
sufciently to enter into a transaction is paramount, and communicating
trustworthiness remains a challenge (Chadwick, 2001). Although electronic
commerce can embrace the execution of business transactions using any electronic
media, generally the literature refers only to Internet or web marketing. If mobile
telephones and digital TVare to be used as tools with which to access the Internet, then
perhaps the term Internet marketing is not strictly correct, and the term interactive
marketing or electronic marketing is more appropriate.
What writers understand by electronic marketing is also wide, and the literature
contains many different streams. One of the most discussed subjects in the last decade
is e-commerce (Pandya and Arenyeka-Diamond, 2002). Many papers have been
written, including those devoted to the use of electronic marketing in transaction and
payment completion, dis-intermediation (reducing the number of intermediaries in a
distribution channel), individualised and real-time pricing issues, data mining and
manipulation, examining individual customer behaviours, and relationship-building.
Some have gone as far as suggesting that there is a new marketing paradigm for
electronic commerce (Hoffman and Novak, 1997).
This paper considers electronic marketing, the latest type of marketing, using the
familiar seven Ps of promotion, price, product, place, process, physical evidence and
people (Booms and Bitner, 1981). Issues such as branding, public relations, direct
marketing, advertising, personal selling and information seeking are considered in an
attempt to evaluate electronic marketing and its potential contribution to the
marketing practice.
Promotion
The established tools of promotion, such as advertising, sales promotion and direct
marketing have been augmented by the development of the technology, which has
offered the potential to communicate with many customers. Telephone marketing,
e-mail and mobile telephony, as well as digital TV and the Internet, have supplemented
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these traditional tools. In order to maximise the effectiveness of the tools, cohesive
integration is needed (Cornelisessen and Lock, 2001). The synergy generated by such
integration far outweighs the use of individual tools in isolation, although it has been
suggested that the Internet has increased effectiveness and efciency in
communicating with customers (Hardaker and Graham, 2001). Websites have the
potential to give information, to entertain and be interactive in their communication.
Hence, the use of integrated communications and the subsequent development of such
use means that a user can experience a range of different media when viewing an
organisations website graphics, video clips, music, text, speech and, sometimes,
virtual reality (Adams and Clark, 2001). Each element of the promotions mix is
discussed below.
Advertising
There has been considerable research into how advertising is accomplished using the
Internet. It is argued that although the Internet is a young medium for undertaking
advertising, it has already reached a level of maturity and is already recognised as a
branding medium (Meadows-Klue, 2002). Early in the use of commercial web pages, a
web page viewer had to know where to go to look at the organisations site, which
meant messages being located only by those who were computer-literate and patient in
their search. Today, aided by banner advertising, pop-up boxes, and links from other
sites, communication with the target audience is made easier. Research funded by the
European Commission (Meadows-Klue, 2002) concluded that marketers are still
cautious about spending on this medium, not least because it is difcult to measure the
effectiveness of such spending. As one denition of advertising is that it is paid space
in the media, it is easy to see how the meaning of advertising has been manipulated to
include self-managed sites such as company product pages (OConnor and Gavin,
2001).
Furthermore, the denition of media in the Internet age seems to stretch to include
the virtual environment offered by web pages rather than the physical media such as
the press and magazines, as well as broadcast media such as radio and television.
Advertising is then made possible by the purchase of banners and/or pop-up
messages on sites, such as portals, owned by other people. Customer aversion to such
messages (although once seen as novel and interesting) has resulted in some service
providers turning away advertisers, as with the announcement from America OnLine
(AOL) that pop-up ads would be ditched from new versions of its software (Carter,
2002), prompted by the perception of these messages as being irritating or annoying
(Rettie et al., 2002).
Sales promotion
Sales promotional activity aimed at the consumer, such as buy-one-get-one-free offers
and two-for-the-price-of-one offers may be difcult to replicate in the virtual
environment. However, the possibility of downloading and printing coupons is now
common and is a measurable demonstration of a websites effectiveness. Little has
been written in the academic press about the potential of Internet marketing to support
sales promotional activity. However, the practitioner marketing press has examples of
how text messaging and other interactive media can be used to encourage trial by the
sending of interactive promotional messages using one or more media (e.g. mobile
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telephones and digital TV as well as web pages). Examples include NatWest (Goddard,
2003) and Wickes (Papas, 2003). Some organizations offer price incentives to promote
web purchases instead of bricks and mortar visits in an attempt to convert customers
to Internet shopping. Others may consider the use of integrated communications (e.g.
telemarketing) to encourage take-up of promotional incentives offered via web pages or
e-mail.
Direct marketing
The organisation/customer relationship is enabled by the creation of trust in an
electronic environment (Chadwick, 2001). Allan and Chudry (2000, p. 82) state that the
Internet is an excellent channel for communicating with customers on an individual
basis because of its immediate and direct interaction capability.
Integration of all marketing communication tools is as important in electronic
marketing as it is in the non-virtual world. The ultimate role of direct marketing is to
gain a response. The Internet has the advantage of being able to solicit such responses
in real time and enables providers to interact with potential and actual consumers as
well as enabling intra-customer communications. This interaction has sparked further
debate on the possibility of one-to-one marketing (Caccavale, 2000) with a view to
developing strong and lasting relationships with loyal customers. Such tailored
messages are reliant upon the mining of large amounts of data (Agrawal et al., 2001)
and, hence, may be the domain of larger, more readily resourced organisations.
Instantaneous tailoring, however, such as individual site-navigation or product
advice based on browsing or shopping behaviour, may be the driver of customer
retention after the initial transaction. Arnott and Bridgewater (2002) suggest that this
potential is currently under-exploited by marketers. Perhaps this is because customers
have shown a reluctance to commit to purchase online. However, it is unclear whether
the pre-purchase informational searching undertaken by customers leads to purchases
ofine. Hence, interactive information-giving is essential as a precursor to the
transaction, whether it be online or ofine. It may be logical to suppose that the
individualized and tailored messages/offers which are made possible by the Internet
would mean the ultimate in one-to-one marketing, as originally espoused by Peppers
and Rogers (1993), and consequently the facility for better and stronger
relationship-building.
Publicity
As totally controllable media, interactive technologies have the potential to play a
major role in publicity campaigns, particularly when promoting messages which the
company wants to impart to its customers or other stakeholders. Internet news releases
may be one of the most effective means of getting news across to those you want to
hear. Instead of pushing out information to the target audience by using press releases,
todays PR executives have to rethink strategies and pull the audience in towards them
(Fane-Saunders, 2003). The role of web pages in imparting information is both
economical and effective, provided that people are persuaded to visit the site and
assimilate (and believe) the information contained therein. The Internet also has the
potential to create negative publicity, outside the control of the organisation.
Proliferations of consumer forums have been set up, for example,
Click2complaints.co.uk, Gasta.co.uk, baddealings.com and mirago.co.uk to name but
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a few. Within such sites, individuals are encouraged to tell others about their poor
customer service experiences. Unless organizations respond to such criticisms with
positive action, such negative publicity has the potential to damage their reputations.
Personal selling
In traditional marketing, the role of the personal sales person has been fundamental to
building relationships, particularly in business-to-business markets. Whilst the
Internet can take over some of the activities offered by the personal sales person (e.g.
accepting purchase orders), some of the activities undertaken by sales representatives
cannot be replaced by technology. These non-transaction activities include limited
service/maintenance functions at the customers site (Porter, 2001), competitor
research, customer service activities pre-transaction (e.g. measuring, site visits) and
post-purchase activities like training.
For many consumers, the social interchange involved in some marketing channels
adds to the enjoyment of undertaking a transaction (Harris et al., 2000) and the lack of
personal interface may be detrimental. However, if organizations have the facility for
questions to be answered in real time, this may allow companies to replicate the
interaction with individual sales/service staff in the virtual market space. Likewise,
customer chat rooms or forums can enhance a shopping experience. The introduction
of avatars (or digital people) to handle customer service enquiries can also help
alleviate consumer concerns.
Price
It was initially believed that the Internet could benet organizations because of the
decreased costs involved with distribution, hence improving prot margins if they
chose not to pass these benets on to customers. However, because the customer has
become more empowered by being able to check, compare and negotiate prices in the
shorter time scales enabled by the Internet, the issue of pricing in electronic markets
has become a pressure point for e-marketers (Ancarani, 2002). The Internet displays
many of the criteria of an efcient market (e.g. information about prices, products and
distribution) but not narrow price dispersion (Strauss et al., 2003). Although the costs
of changing prices in the virtual environment are less than in the bricks-and-mortar
world, it may be more difcult to construct market position using price and, indeed, to
differentiate using price (Simon and Schumann, 2001). Additionally, the advent of
online auctions has had an effect in pushing prices downwards (Hackney and Grifths,
2002). Internet-only providers, like Amazon.com, have also contributed to price
competition, effectively forcing down the prices charged by their competitors.
Ironically, however, Bromage (2001) discovered that (at least some) online shoppers
buy online for convenience rather than for price advantages. As price can sometimes be
perceived as the value that the customer puts on the product being made available, it is
therefore essential that the customer perceives that they are getting value for money in
what is being offered, which may include convenience, efciency and excellence (Bevan
and Murphy, 2001). Marketers should consider this when planning market position.
Product
One might argue that there are no products which are not suitable for Internet
transactions. The Internet has offered the opportunity to offer product augmentation
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by allowing customisation by individual customers as well as augmented services
(Balasubramanian et al., 2001). Products, therefore, become more and more
individually tailored to the customers needs. Some pure-play (online only) retailers
offer products which are not available through alternative outlets; thus successes have
been claimed for a variety of different types of product, both physical goods (e.g. books,
CDs, wine, etc.) and services (e.g. direct banking, insurance, travel, etc.). Others, such as
supermarkets, offer Internet shopping (the product?) which embraces individual
grocery items, all of which are product offerings in their own right. The value is created
not by the indvidual grocery items but the integrated service offering of
value-as-convenience and value-as-excellence (Bevan and Murphy, 2001). Innovation
in the use of Internet technology has allowed new products to be invented, such as
FriendsReunited.com, a service to reunite old school friends and acquaintances,
services for the sale of rare items like collectibles and jewellery, and estate agency
services offering virtual tours of property, to name but a few. However, for
high-involvement purchases, it may be that consumers are less willing to take the risk
of buying an unseen product (e.g. a car). Similarly, it is impossible to undertake
transactions for services where the physical proximity of the customer is necessary
(e.g. dentistry or hairdressing). Nevertheless, a customer can commit interactively to
consuming such services, for example by booking and paying for an appointment in
advance.
Branding as part of the product
The value of the brand has long been recognized by strategic marketers (Leiser, 2003)
and there is no reason why the strengths of the brand cannot continue in the virtual
world. Reassurance about the credibility, authenticity and overall good faith (Tonglet,
2001) are important to Internet shoppers and it follows, logically, that a strong brand
will be even more important in the virtual environment. This may lead to success for
well-known or High Street brands leveraging their success from one environment to
another. Jeavons and Gabbott (2000) suggest that there is some similarity between the
intangibility of services and the intangibility of the brand in the virtual environment.
The emotional qualities of the brand may be just as easy to convey using electronic
media as they are using conventional media, a view supported by De Chernatony
(1996). Some organizations, however, have developed brands specically for Internet
business, distancing such operations from the parent brand either to target different
market segments or to protect the image of the parent brand, for example Egg and
Cahoot in nancial services and Procter and Gambles Internet-only brand,
Reect.com.
Process
The process by which a customer receives a service has long been discussed in service
management and marketing literature (Shostack, 1984). The Internet allows
organizations to make their service delivery system exible (Ahmad, 2002).
Allowing the customer to access an organization using interactive media changes
the service processes fundamentally. Such access alleviates the need to travel to the
bricks-and-mortar store, it assists pre-purchase searching, and it removes the personal
interaction experienced by telephone marketing or retail stores. The process of paying
remotely is still subject to consumer concerns (Evans et al., 2001) but such fears are
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gradually being eroded by the promotion of safe-site symbols. Little thought has been
given to measuring the effectiveness of these process changes (Jones and Kayworth,
2002). What is interesting about the virtual market place is that the user, rather than
the organization, is in control of the process by which he or she accesses the service
(Robins, 2000). Whilst it is admitted that the web-designer is in control of the way in
which a customer can navigate an Internet site, only customers can control the process
they go through in interacting with that site or, in fact, whether they interact with it at
all.
Physical evidence
Particularly relevant in the marketing of services, physical evidence reassures the
customer of the product to come and gives clues about its quality. Such physical
symbols as brochures or furnishings cannot be seen and touched in the virtual world,
as there is no physical entity. Because of the lack of physical proximity in electronic
marketing, it is possible that in the virtual environment, marketers employ virtual
evidence instead. This may be seen by the customer as a combination of graphics,
brand or third-party endorsements, as well as the pre-, during- and post-transaction
reassurance sought by wary customers. Specialist sites, such as E-Bay, encourage
customers to report back on the service provided by sellers and, similarly, sellers to
feed back on the behaviour of customers, for example in paying promptly. Such
customer service activities complement the product offering and may tip the balance as
to whether a browser commits to purchase or not. A lack of tangible evidence may lead
customers to be wary of completing the transaction online. Instead, they may use
interactive media to narrow their search before purchasing from an established outlet
with which they are familiar.
People
In services marketing, the people factor is widely accepted as having a great deal of
inuence on customer satisfaction. The variability in service delivery can often be
attributed to the individual personalities involved in the interchange or service delivery
with managers. Likewise, the satisfaction of customers is often related to their personal
relationship with a specic person who provides the services and their resultant trust
in and reliance on the providers abilities.
In online marketing, there is no personal interaction between a customer and the
provider, or between other customers. Trust has to be generated by other means, such
as communications messages and brands. Chadwick (2001) suggests that the human
factor in e-commerce is present in such communications from which trust can be
gained, going as far as saying that if consumers think they see signs of trust on
e-commerce web sites, they will likely reciprocate with trust (p. 657).
Lack of the personal interface may result in customer distrust of rst-time
interaction with electronic channels. It is also more difcult for providers to build a
relationship with customers whom they never see (Dobie et al., 2001).
It has been suggested that customers who try to access customer service from online
rms may encounter more problems than customers accessing customer service from a
non-online provider (Lennon and Harris, 2002). One would think that the use of
interactive media could enhance customer service activities through web-enabled call
centres, but some companies actively discourage customers to call them. Voice-over
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Internet protocols, however, mean that staff could direct customers to particular
web-pages in an interactive, real-time enquiry session. It seems that companies have
not maximized the potential of web-based customer service, to the extent that many US
Internet providers have been criticised for their lack of customer service (National
Association of Consumer Agency Administrators and the Consumer Federation of
America, 2000). Customers need fast service-recovery actions in order to prevent them
defecting and to prevent subsequent negative word of mouth (Ahmad, 2002) or public
airing of grievances in online consumer complaint forums and chat-rooms. Self-service
technology (SST) can be useful but, when technical failures occur, may mean that
customer dissatisfaction is higher than it would be when trying to access or use the
service facility (van Riel et al., 2001)
It has been suggested that customers may choose to use many sources of
information prior to purchase. The subsequent purchase may, or may not, be through
an Internet-based retail outlet. Phelan (1996) asserted that few marketers had realized
that web pages are capable of communicating information cues in detail, incorporating
third-party appraisals and endorsements.
People who wish to purchase using electronic marketing exhibit similar purchase
behaviour to those who purchase in traditional environments. Having established a
need, they search for information on products to satisfy that need. In todays
environment, the trend is towards information excess, which may or may not aid the
consumers decision-making processes. Customers may use the Internet pre-purchase
in an attempt to nd unbiased information about their prospective purchase, or to seek
out factual data from company-sponsored web pages. Information relating to the
variety of products available, their relative quality and stock levels are important
determinants in stimulating product and/or brand awareness (Luk et al., 2002). Using
click-stream data (data collected about the clicks that a website visitor makes when
online) may provide rich information about customer choice processes prior to
purchase (Bucklin et al., 2002). Indeed, Hamel and Sampler (1998) suggest that as many
as 64 per cent of Internet users research products online and then use such information
to shop within existing known channels. Aldridge et al. (1997) suggested that
customers put themselves into segments when they visit websites by indicating their
specic benet preferences. Companies need to mine the data they obtain from
customers as a form of marketing research to better determine customer needs, wants,
likes and dislikes. They also need to use click-stream data to learn how customers use
their sites and why sales are abandoned, and to analyse the effectiveness of individual
promotions.
Place
A notable implication for marketers is the potential to shift from a non-virtual
marketplace to a market-space instead, incorporating virtual transaction/distribution
spaces (Lockett and Blackman, 2001). The ability of a website to establish contact with
and subsequently serve customers has been hailed by many as a cost-reducing way of
distributing goods/services direct from the provider to the consumer. Hence, the
potential of the Internet has been seen to be exciting and, for some, the opportunity to
enter new markets which had previously been inaccessible to them (Allan and Chudry,
2000).
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Web only
Offering goods and services exclusively and only through the virtual distribution
channel enabled by the Internet has become the forte of some organizations (e.g.
Amazon.com). However, the website cannot, in most cases, completely replace
established agents/distributors but, instead, increases the efciency of the existing
network of intermediaries (Ranchhod and Gurau, 2002).
The relatively low-cost option of setting up distribution virtually has enabled SMEs
to gain entry into markets, especially overseas, which would have been difcult, if not
impossible, using traditional marketing distribution channels. However, it is also
possible to preclude certain market segments, i.e. those who do not have Internet access
or skills.
Bricks and clicks
Retailers offering both a physical retail outlet and the opportunity to buy from an
online facility are becoming more prevalent. In some markets (e.g. grocery), the two
forms of distribution work hand-in-hand. Indeed, the synergy created by the use of
multi-channels can out-perform the pure-play (online only) retailers (Vishwanath and
Mulvin, 2001).
Research by Balabanis and Vassileiou (1999) determined that consumers from the
higher income brackets were likely candidates for purchase through the Internet, but
only from retailers with recognized brands. Hence, it is likely that the most successful
online retailers will be those organizations that also have a physical presence in the
high street/shopping centres.
No Web presence
Although there are still many examples of organisations which do not do business over
the Internet, many use some form of electronic marketing to support their activities.
Some writers go as far as suggesting that if organisations do not have e-business
activities, then they will not be in business for very much longer (Tobias, 2002).
However, in many business-to-business markets, there is a need for credit checks to be
undertaken with new trading partners before transactions take place, which negates
the initiation of a relationship purely online. Likewise, some products, by their very
nature, require a representative to visit the customer. This may be to view where the
product will be in operation and check ambient conditions, perhaps take appropriate
measurements in order to tailor-make to suit the customers requirements or to inspect
any special needs which the customer may have, both in consumer and industrial
markets. In these circumstances, allowing technical information to be made available
through web pages may be detrimental to marketing.
Conclusions
The use of the 7 Ps framework offers managers a structure with which to evaluate the
operationalisation of electronic marketing. While electronic marketing is the new kid
on the block, and is thus viewed as a stranger or intruder by some, it is becoming more
and more commonplace. Nowadays, online promotion by organisations is almost
expected and organisations encourage visits to their websites by the use of integrated
marketing communications. Tools such as text messaging, broadcast and print
advertising as well as corporate literature are being used to bring about such visits.
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However, although online sales promotion is increasing, online advertising is not well
received by potential customers and is decreasing.
Assertions that the Internet would replace the need for bricks and mortar physical
sites were, perhaps, premature at best and misguided in the case of some web-only
organisations.
Originally heralded as the low price option, this argument for the introduction
of online marketing has now been superseded by the perception of value for
customers. Customers are indeed prepared to pay a higher price by shopping
online provided that they can see some value for doing so (e.g. convenience,
exclusivity, etc.).
A large range of goods and services is accessible online, even if the nal transaction
(i.e. payment) is not completed electronically. Likewise, some products cannot be
experienced online, but customers can commit to purchase such experiences at a
given date and time. Some products have been specically designed for or by online
customers.
In terms of process, an organisation designs the way in which it wishes the
customer to navigate its site but, in reality, the customer can circumnavigate the
process or not interact with it at all, for example when choosing to search for
information about a product online but subsequently purchasing from a
bricks-and-mortar site instead of following the process of proceeding to purchase
online.
Lack of phsysical evidence forces organisations to be more creative in reassuring
customers of their bona des by displaying symbols which promote reassurance.
Failure to do so is likely to prompt customers to buy only from known and trusted
organsiations.
In electronic marketing there is no personal interaction. The slowness with
which organisations have utilised technology to provide customer service solutions
has been detrimental, possibly leading to customer dissatisfaction.
Online marketing complements the distribution activity. History has shown that to
rely on online sales activity without alternative means of distribution may be
short-sighted, and has resulted in the closure of some Internet-only businesses (e.g.
Boo.com). However, if electronic marketing is seen as an integrated part of the total
distribution network, it can add value. In most cases, there is a need for both virtual
and real distribution outlets.
The continued development of the Internet as part of the marketers toolbox is
assured, particularly if creative use is made of new technology to reassure customers,
reduce risk and add value to the transaction and/or relationship. Marketers need to
evaluate their electronic offering regularly in order to ensure that it meets customer
needs and utilises technology to the best effect. Similarly, organisations should not
become complacent. The exibility allowed by electronic marketing activities to
update products, communications and other elements of the marketing mix online may
lead to rapid changes in a market place. Hence, organisations should constantly update
their own electronic marketing efforts. They need to check regularly that they are
offering technically sophisticated, up-to-date, user-friendly and value-adding activities
in line with or superior to others in the market place.
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