E-COMMERCE

&
INTERNET
MARKETING

FREE ELEC II

1.
 Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Page

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Internet Marketing and Multichannel Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Digital marketing strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Digital marketing communications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Chapter 2

The Internet Micro-environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Online marketplace analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Customer analysis and consumer behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Competitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Suppliers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Intermediaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Marketplace models. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chapter 3

The Internet Macro environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Social Factors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Legal and ethical issue of internet usage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Technological factors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Economic factors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Political factors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Chapter 4

Internet Marketing Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

An Integrated internet marketing strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
A generic strategic approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Situation review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Strategic goal setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Strategy formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Strategy implementation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

2.
Chapter 5

The Internet and the marketing mix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Product. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Price. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Place. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Promotion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
People, process and physical evidence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Chapter 6

Relationship marketing using the internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Key concepts of relationship marketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Key concepts of electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) . . . . . . . 30
Customer lifecycle management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Approach to implementing e-CRM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Chapter 7

Delivering the online customer experiences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Planning website design and build. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Initiation of the website project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 32
Researching site users’ requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Designing the user experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 34
Develop and testing of content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Online retail merchandising. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Promoting the site. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Service quality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Chapter 8

Campaign planning for digital media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

The Characteristics of digital media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Step 1: Goal setting and tracking for interactive marketing communication. . . . 36
Step 2: Campaign insight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Step 3: Segmentation and targeting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Step 4: Offer, message development and creative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Step 5: Budgeting and selecting the digital media mix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Step 6: Integrating into overall media schedule or plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

3.
Chapter 9

Marketing communications using digital media channel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Search engine marketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Online public relations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Online partnership including affiliate marketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Interactive display advertising. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Opt-in-email marketing and mobile text messaging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Viral and electronic word-of-mouth marketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Offline promotion techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Chapter 10

Evaluation and improvement of digital channel performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Performance management for digital channels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
The maintenance process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Responsibilities in website maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Chapter 11

Business-to-consumer internet marketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

The consumer perspective: online consumer behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
The retail perspective: e-retailing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Implication for e-retail marketing strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Chapter 12

Business-to-business internet marketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 53

B2B trading environments and electronic marketplace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Online marketing efficiency gains. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Analyzing the factors which influence the adoption of internet technologies. . . . . 55
Digital marketing strategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

4.
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Learning Objectives

 Identify the Introduction

 Know the Introduction
 Classify the sections of The Internet Micro-environment
 Illustrate the Online Marketplace
 Be familiar with the The Internet Micro-environment
 Distinguished the basic Internet Marketing and Multichannel Marketing

Internet marketing and Multi-Channel Marketing

Multi-channel marketing is the practice of using multiple channels to reach customers. Also
known as cross-channel marketing, multi-channel marketing also makes it easy for customers to
complete desired conversions on whatever medium they are most comfortable with. Multi-
channel marketing lets the user decide, giving them a choice.

In today’s modern marketing era, there are many channels a business can take advantage of in
order to reach potential customers. These channels include:

 Retail storefronts
 PPC and other online advertising
 Website (including content marketing/blogging)
 Direct mail
 Email marketing
 Mail order catalogs
 Mobile marketing

5.
Multichannel marketing provides customers with more than one way to complete a sales
transaction, such as through a retail store, a web page on the Internet, or even through their smart
phones.

Additionally, it recognizes that different consumers not only favor particular channels, but may
commonly use multiple channels throughout the purchasing process—for example, by finding
information on a web page, but actually making the purchase at a physical store.

There are a number of perceived benefits to multi-channel marketing, but as any marketer
knows, there’s always more to the story:

 Increased Awareness. The multichannel approach is about casting the widest net to get
the maximum customer engagement. However, the multichannel approach only accounts
for number of touch points, versus trying to give customers the best holistic experience
throughout all touch points.

 Consistent Messaging. One benefit of multichannel marketing is the allure of a

consistent brand message. It’s a challenge facing all companies, and one many are still
trying to figure out. While a multichannel strategy can help ensure your brand has a
consistent message, multichannel marketing itself usually results in siloed departments
pushing their own messaging on their own channels.

 Channel Preference. Reach your customers on their preferred channel. Sounds perfect,
right? Yes and no. For companies with a longer buying cycle, you need to hit potential
customers more than once, and that means targeting them with the right message, in the
right place, at the right time within their journey. Multichannel marketing may allow you
to reach customers on the channel of their choice, but it doesn’t necessarily move them
along to purchase.

 More Data. More touch points means more data. However, since a multichannel
approach merely aims to get the word out via the maximum possible number of channels,
the data provides more information about the channel itself than the actual customer
(think email subject lines vs. customer behavior across channels).

6.
Digital marketing strategy

Your digital marketing strategy is the series of actions that help you achieve your company goals
through carefully selected online marketing channels. These channels include paid, earned, and
owned media, and can all support a common campaign around a particular line of business.

The term "strategy" might seem intimidating, but building an effective digital strategy doesn't
need to be difficult.

In simple terms, a strategy is just a plan of action to achieve a desired goal, or multiple goals. For
example, your overarching goal might be to generate 25% more leads via your website this year
than you drove last year.

Depending on the scale of your business, your digital marketing strategy might involve multiple
digital strategies -- each with different goals -- and a lot of moving parts. But coming back to this
simple way of thinking about strategy can help you stay focused on meeting those objectives.

Despite our simplification of the term "strategy," there's no doubt it can be difficult to get started
actually building one. Let's see what a digital marketing campaign looks like, and then, we'll
jump into those seven building blocks to help you create an effective digital marketing strategy
to set up your business for online success.

The challenges of creating a digital marketing strategy?

In my experience, a common challenge is where to start drawing up your digital marketing plan.
I think there is a fear that a massive report is required, but we believe that lean planning works
best. Your plan doesn't need to be a huge report, a strategy can best be summarized in two or
three sides of A4 in a table linking digital marketing strategies to SMART objectives within our
RACE planning framework. We recommend creating a lean digital plan based on our 90-day
planning templates to implement your digital plan rapidly to gain traction.

Another challenge is the sheer scope and scale of digital marketing. There are so many great
digital marketing techniques ranging from search, social and email marketing to improve the
digital experience of your website. Our article, What is digital marketing? shows how by using
our RACE planning framework you can define a more manageable number of digital marketing
activities which cover the full customer journey. Within each digital marketing technique, there
are lots of detailed tactics that are important to success, so they need to be evaluated and
prioritized, for example from dynamic content for email automation, website personalization to
programmatic, retargeting and skyscraper content for organic search.

7.
Digital marketing strategy: How to structure a plan? definition

A digital marketing strategy is a channel strategy which means that it should...

 Be informed by research into customer channel behavior and marketplace activity =

intermediaries, publishers and competitors
 Based on objectives for future online and offline channel contribution %
 Define and communicate the differentials of the channel to encourage customers to use it,
 BUT, need to manage channel integration

So put another way, digital marketing strategy defines how companies should:

 Hit our channel leads & sales targets

 Budgets for Acquisition, Conversion, Retention & Growth, Service
 Communicate benefits of using this channel “ enhance brand
 Priorities audiences targeted through channel
 Priorities products available through channel

Digital marketing communications

The marketing landscape has changed drastically in the last few decades, with the rise of the
Internet, smart phones, social and digital media, and big data all destabilizing the more
traditional means of advertising. These new possibilities offer unprecedented potential for market
exposure. Yet there are also growing concerns about privacy risks, ethical questions, and a
potential decline of social media through over-saturation.

This specialization will help you to answer some of the puzzling, yet exciting, questions that
emerge in this domain. You will gain a clear understanding of one of the most important aspects
of modern-day communication. In collaboration with students enrolled in our Master’s
programme Business Administration, you will learn to explain, predict, and influence consumer
behavior, gaining expertise in digital marketing strategies, social media, and big data. At the end
of this track, you will possess skills that every 21st century organization requires.

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is all marketing which goes on within social networks such as Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, and many more. For example Facebook has quite a complex social
media advertising program, which allows the advertiser to focus on over 1 billion people, based
on their location, age and other attributes. There are other sections on marketing teacher with
more detail on Facebook advertising programs.

8.
Opt-in e-mail marketing

Opt-in e-mail marketing is exactly what it says on the tin. Visitors or clients are encouraged to
opt in, or in other words sign up for an e-mail newsletter. It is that simple! The idea is that
participants opt-in with permission, rather than simply being added to a database without their
knowledge. This is also known as permission marketing. Again Marketing Teacher has plenty of
information to help you learn about e-mail marketing.

Display advertising

Display advertising is often the first type of advertising that springs to mind when thinking about
the Internet; display advertising is simply the adverts that you see when you visit any website.
Examples could include banner adverts which run across the top of Page, or far more rich and
complex adverts such as video adverts; many of the banner adverts and display adverts that you
see are part of large programs such as Google AdWords, or similar.

Online PR or Digital PR

Online public relations, or Digital Public Relations (DPR), tend to be digital marketing
communications which encourage a positive perception or profile of your business or
organization. There are lessons on public relations on Marketing Teacher if you need a refresher!
However the business will be aiming to generate positive blogs, re-tweets, Facebook shares, and
similar online PR. Be aware that PR whether online or off-line does have a cost, and public
relations is not free. In order to generate favorable content written on your behalf, there is a large
investment in terms of effort and cash. Your online public relations might be a mention on a
news channel, either in text or video, you might also receive positive commentary on podcasts,
although these are becoming less popular. Viral campaigns whereby an interesting or
entertaining fact or video is circulated by e-mail or social networks are probably a better example
of a contemporary public relations approach. There are examples of viral marketing on
Marketing Teacher.

Search engine marketing

Search Engine Marketing, or Search Engine Optimization SEO, employ marketing tools which
attempt to gain the best position possible for your business in search engines such as Google or
Bing. Once you have attracted a new visitor, the positioning of text or Calls-To-Action (CTA)
will keep a visitor on your site for longer, and will start to move them along your marketing
tunnel.

9.
Other online relationships

There are a number of other online relationships which come under the heading of digital
marketing, or digital media channels. These will include an array of other approaches. Here are
some popular examples:

• Price comparison sites where the cost of holidays, insurance and other consumables are
compared. Obviously some comparison sites are more open and honest in terms of the results
that they deliver, whilst others are less so

• Affiliate marketing sites are also quite interesting to study and do tend to generate some niche
income from many small sites. Amazon has a very successful affiliate program whereby small
site owners can place code upon their site to advertise books which Amazon sources and
delivers. So you might have a website which focuses upon market gardening, and you might
advertise books which explain how to grow tomatoes.

• Link building is also often considered a way of developing online relationships; however be
very cautious with this. Google especially considers strong or informed links to your website as a
benefit when deciding upon your position within search results. Obviously many Webmasters
have caught on to this and tried different linking strategies to falsely claw their way to the top of
the search engine results. All links need to be natural.

10.
 CHAPTER 2

The Internet Micro- environment

Learning Objectives

 Identify the key differences between internet marketing and traditional marketing
 Identify the different elements micro and macro environment that impact on an
organization’s internet marketing strategy

Online marketplace analysis

This is an analysis of the online marketplace or ‘market space’ and is a key part of developing a
long-term internet marketing plan or even to simply create a shorter-term digital marketing
campaign.

Completing a marketplace analysis helps to define the main types of online presence that are part
of a ‘click ecosystem’ which describes the consumer behavior or flow of online visitors between
search engines, media sites, other intermediaries to an organization and its competitors.
Prospects and customers in an online marketplace will naturally turn to search engines to find
products, services, brands and entertainment. Organizations need to analyze consumer use of key
phrases entered from generic searches for products of services, more specific phrases and brand
phrases incorporating their brand and competitor names.

11.
 Customer Segments – The marketplace analysis should identify and summaries different target
segments for an online business in order to then understand their online media consumption,
buyer behavior and the type of content and experiences they will be looking for from
intermediaries and your website.

 Search Intermediaries – These are the main search engines in each country. Companies need to
know which sites are effective in harnessing search traffic and either partner with them to try to
obtain a share of traffic using search engine marketing or affiliate marketing techniques. Trusted
or well-known brands which have developed customer loyalty are in a good position to succeed
online since common consumer behavior is to go straight to the site through entering a URL.

 Intermediaries and media sites – Media sites and other intermediaries such as aggregators and
affiliates are often successful in attracting visitors via search or direct since they are mainstream
brands. Companies need to assess potential online media and distribution partners – examples of
these would be: Mainstream news media sites or portals, Niche/vertical media sites, price
comparison sites and niche affiliates or bloggers.

 Destination sites – These are the sites that the marketer is trying to generate visitors to, whether
these are transactional sites, like retailers, financial services or travel companies or manufactures
or brands. Your online value proposition (OVP) is a key aspect to consider within planning –
marketers should evaluate their OVPs against competitors and think about how they can refine
them to develop a unique online experience.

The benefits of marketplace analysis

 How customers research and select your products. Research gathering insight on how
users search and use social media will help you understand how you can gain visibility on
search engines and with relevant influencers.

 Where you need to improve the marketing effectiveness of your site. Competitor
benchmarking using personas can show you how well your site and marketing is appealing to
different audiences and you can learn from marketing approaches used by other competitors
for traffic

 Potential revenue improvements from gap analysis. You can justify increased investment
in digital marketing by showing what potential lead and sales increase you can achieve for
based by creating conversion budget models of the size of online audience searching for your
products or services and potential sales

 How you’re marketing capabilities compares. How your digital marketing capabilities
compare to direct competitors or out-of-sector sites to help create a roadmap of new projects
or to implement "quick wins"•

 Where the quick wins lie. Where are your biggest inefficiencies in search, email marketing
or different parts of your website which you need to fix?

12.
 Future opportunities and threats. Using a SWOT analysis will highlight future
opportunities and threats from new digital or marketing platforms, for example currently
communities, mobile and branded applications or utilities.

Customer analysis and consumer behavior

A customer analysis (or customer profile) is a critical section of a company's business plan or
marketing plan. It identifies target customers, ascertains the needs of these customers, and then
specifies how the product satisfies these needs. A customer analysis can be broken down into a
behavioral profile (why your product matches a customer's lifestyle) and a demographic profile
(describing a customer's demographic attributes).

A customer profile is a simple tool that can help business better understand current and potential
customers, so they can increase sales and grow their business. Customer profiles are a collection
of information about customers that help determine why people buy or don't buy a product.
Customer profiles can also help develop targeted marketing plans and help ensure that products
meet the needs of their intended audience.

 Demographics: Gender, age, family, location, income, and job type

 Geographic: Location, population size, type of area (rural, suburban, or urban)
 Psychographic: Social class, lifestyle, personality, motivation
 Interests: Hobbies, activities, reading, organizations supported
 Communication: Where the group spends time, how they prefer to get information
 Size of Base: Size of the target population and whether it is group growing, shrinking or
staying about the same

What is consumer behavior?

Consumer behavior is the study of individuals and organizations and how they select and use
products and services. It is mainly concerned with psychology, motivations, and behavior.

The study of consumer behavior includes:

 How consumers think and feel about different alternatives (brands, products, services,
and retailers)
 How consumers reason and select between different alternatives
 The behavior of consumers while researching and shopping

13.
  How consumer behavior is influenced by their environment (peers, culture, media)
 How marketing campaigns can be adapted and improved to more effectively influence
the consumer

These considerations are influenced by three factors:

 Personal factors – A person’s interests and opinions. These will be affected by
demographics such as age, gender, culture, profession, background and so on.

 Psychological factors – Everybody’s response to a particular marketing campaign will

be based on their perceptions and attitudes. A person’s ability to comprehend
information, their perception of their need, their attitude, will all play a part.

 Social factors – Peer groups, from family and friends to social media influence. This
factor also includes social class, income, and education level.

Competitor

In marketing and strategic management is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses

of current and potential competitors. This analysis provides both an offensive and defensive
strategic context to identify opportunities and threats. Profiling combines all of the relevant
sources of competitor analysis into one framework in the support of efficient and effective
strategy formulation, implementation, monitoring and adjustment.

Competitor analysis is an essential component of corporate strategy.[2] It is argued that most

firms do not conduct this type of analysis systematically enough. Instead, many enterprises
operate on what is called "informal impressions, conjectures, and intuition gained through the
tidbits of information about competitors every manager continually receives." As a result,
traditional environmental scanning places many firms at risk of dangerous competitive blind
spots due to a lack of robust competitor analysis.

Suppliers

A supplier is a person, organization, or other entity that provides something that another
person, organization, or entity needs. During transactions, there are suppliers and buyers.
Suppliers provide or supply products or services, while buyers receive them.

We commonly use the term ‘vendor’ with the same meaning as ‘supplier.’

In business, for example, every company has at least one supplier. Suppliers supply or provide
the company with materials, products, and services.

14.
Intermediaries

Intermediaries are individuals or organizations that undertake the role of mediators or

linkage between two parties. Intermediaries are third parties and fill a function that is needed by
two other parties to make a deal or to execute a given task.

The Importance of Intermediaries

In an age where it is easy for any company to set up shop with an e-commerce website, it
may be tempting for a small business to eliminate intermediaries to maximize profit. For a
scaling business, however, this can create a lot of work in logistics and customer support.

What is marketplace model?

According to the FDI policy guideline, “Marketplace model of e-commerce means

providing of an information technology platform by an e-commerce entity on a digital and
electronic network to act as a facilitator between buyer and seller.”

Marketplaces are platforms that enable a large, fragmented base of buyers and sellers to discover
price and transact with one another in an environment that is efficient, transparent and trusted.

The main feature of the market place model is that the e-commerce firm like flip kart, snap deal,
Amazon etc. will be providing a platform for customers to interact with a selected number of
sellers. When an individual is purchasing a product from flip kart, he will be actually buying it
from a registered seller in flip kart. The product is not directly sold by flip kart. Here, flipchart is
just a website platform where a consumer meets a seller. Inventory, stock management, logistics
etc are not supposed to be actively done by the ecommerce firm.

15.
 Chapter 3

The Internet Macro-environment

Learning objectives

 Evaluate the relevance of changes in trading patterns and business models enabled by
digital channels
 Evaluate the significance of other macro-factors such as economic, taxation and legal
constraints

A. Introduction

An organization is often influenced by the environment they work under. There are
several factors which influence such as customers, suppliers etc of the micro environment can be
controlled to a certain extent by the organization. The nature of micro environment is very much
dependent upon macro environmental factors. The macro environment consists of society,
government, rules, and tax, politics, technology, economics etc.

The macro environment will influence all the players operating in the market. Therefore, it does
not imply that the organization should not be bothered with changes happening in the macro
environment. Organizations need to constantly monitor changes happening in political and
regulatory environment and make changes accordingly.

Organizations which adapt to the changes happening in the macro environment can
showcase this as a differentiation and have a competitive advantage.

 Social Factors

Though the advent of the internet is a universal phenomenon, but the usage pattern is not
the same. The level of the internet access and usage directly influence buying behavior of the
consumer. The social perception of the internet directly influences its use. The typical perception
of the internet can be classified as no perceived advantage, little or no trust in the internet,
security risk, cost of usage and utility.

The group of population around above classification are the ones who are not utilizing the
internet, thus organization needs to factor them in demand analysis.

The social impact of the internet cannot be undermined. It has greatly influenced our way
of life and has brought many differences to the fore-front. The population with income and a

16.
certain degree of education is able to use the internet much easily compared to population with
costly service or slower access.

Developed countries are promoting the use of the internet and making efforts through
social programs. Even people with special needs are able to use the internet to their advantage.

B. Legal and ethical issues with internet usage

There are certain types of behaviors which are tolerated and accepted by the society
around the use of the internet. These generally accepted norms are referred to as ethical
standards.

Countries are developing ethics related laws advocating the correct use of the internet. Any
organization should be aware of these laws and develop their marketing programs after taking
them into consideration.

Among internet users the biggest concerns come with privacy factor. Privacy is described
as a moral right every individual, enjoys from intrusion in their personal affairs. The internet
users have their online identity through which they perform a financial and personal transactions.
Consumers are very much concerned for the protection of this online identity.

Effective e-commerce requires an organization to protect contact information, consumer profile,

and behavioral information etc all the time. Organizations should not share or use personal
information without prior consumer consent.

The other half of the legal and ethical issue concerns organization itself and its own protection
against hacking or industrial espionage.

C. Technological Factors

The modern digital technology is disruptive in nature. It forces the organization to re-look at its
strategies more often. The advent of the internet has seen the rise of online retailers, seriously
hampering the function of neighborhood stores.

The biggest challenge for today’s organization is to access the current technological environment
and figure which solution would be the best against the competition. Companies can adopt either
of following three courses:

 Cautious approach
 Fast follower approach
 First mover approach

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 In addition to in-home fixed internet access, the newer addition to technology is the mobile
connectivity. These mobile connectivity is through phones, internet enabled devices, digital TV
and digital radio. With the availability of so many digital devices, a technology convergence is
on the horizon.

Like privacy, security is also a great concern for the organization as well as the internet users. A
security fear prevents greater adoption of e-commerce facilities.

 Any security system should ensure and verify the following:

 Authenticity of identity of users
 Privacy and confidentiality of e-commerce the parties
 Completeness of transaction
 Un-interrupted continuity

D. Economic Factors

The overall economic prosperity of the country will determine the extent of e-commerce
activities. Organizations will target developed economy for more internet based transaction as
compared to a developing country.

The globalization has encouraged the development of a single international market for trade and
commerce. It has reduced the social and the cultural difference between countries. This has
promoted culture of standardization of prices and reduction of intermediaries.

Language and culture difference pose a special problem to smaller companies as they do not
have enough financial resources to develop a regional specific e-commerce.

E. Political Factors

The political and the governing environment in the region or country is determined
through ruling government, public opinion and pressure/consumer advocacy groups.

The government needs to put a control in place as to monitor the development and usage
of the internet. But as internet promotes global collaboration, government agencies across
countries need to collaborate to ensure the safety of e-commerce.

The countries are examining the current tax structure to ensure that e-commerce activities do not
reduce tax collection of local government and agencies.

Organizations need to monitor its macro environment and make necessary changes as to remain
competitive and profitable.

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 CHAPTER 4

Learning Objectives

 Relate internet marketing strategy to marketing and business strategy

 Identify opportunities and threats arising from the internet
 Evaluate alternative strategic approaches to the internet

Internet Marketing Strategy

Internet Marketing (also known as marketing, web marketing, or digital marketing) is an

all-inclusive term for marketing products and/or services online – and like many all-inclusive
terms, internet marketing means different things to different people.

While the obvious purpose of internet marketing is to sell goods, services or advertising
over the internet, it's not the only purpose a business using internet marketing may have; a
company may be marketing online to communicate a message about itself (building its brand) or
to conduct research. Online marketing can be a very effective way to identify a target market or
discover a marketing segment's wants and needs. (Learn more about conducting market
research).

Essentially, though, internet marketing refers to the strategies that are used to market a
product or service online, including:

 Website design strategies

 Search engine optimization and search engine submission
 Online promotions
 Reciprocal linking
 Email marketing
 Social media
 Blogging
 Digital advertising
 Article marketing
 Affiliate programs
 Video/Podcasting

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Porter's Generic Competitive Strategies (ways of competing)

A firm's relative position within its industry determines whether a firm's profitability is
above or below the industry average. The fundamental basis of above average profitability in the
long run is sustainable competitive advantage. There are two basic types of competitive
advantage a firm can possess: low cost or differentiation. The two basic types of competitive
advantage combined with the scope of activities for which a firm seeks to achieve them, lead to
three generic strategies for achieving above average performance in an industry: cost leadership,
differentiation, and focus. The focus strategy has two variants, cost focus and differentiation
focus.

1. Cost Leadership

In cost leadership, a firm sets out to become the low cost producer in its industry. The
sources of cost advantage are varied and depend on the structure of the industry. They may
include the pursuit of economies of scale, proprietary technology, preferential access to raw
materials and other factors. A low cost producer must find and exploit all sources of cost
advantage. if a firm can achieve and sustain overall cost leadership, then it will be an above
average performer in its industry, provided it can command prices at or near the industry
average.

2. Differentiation

In a differentiation strategy a firm seeks to be unique in its industry along some

dimensions that are widely valued by buyers. It selects one or more attributes that many buyers
in an industry perceive as important, and uniquely positions itself to meet those needs. It is
rewarded for its uniqueness with a premium price.

3. Focus

The generic strategy of focus rests on the choice of a narrow competitive scope within an
industry. The focuser selects a segment or group of segments in the industry and tailors its
strategy to serving them to the exclusion of others.

The focus strategy has two variants.

(a) In cost focus a firm seeks a cost advantage in its target segment, while in (b) differentiation
focus a firm seeks differentiation in its target segment. Both variants of the focus strategy rest on
differences between a focuser's target segment and other segments in the industry. The target
segments must either have buyers with unusual needs or else the production and delivery system
that best serves the target segment must differ from that of other industry segments. Cost focus
20.
exploits differences in cost behavior in some segments, while differentiation focus exploits the
special needs of buyers in certain segments.

Situation analysis

A systematic collection and evaluation of past and present economical, political, social,
and technological data, aimed at identification of internal and external forces that may influence
the organization's performance and choice of strategies, and assessment of the organization's
current and future strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. See also PEST analysis and
SWOT analysis.

Goals

Realistic goals are developed from the SWOT analysis. They are not wishful thinking.
Goals describe objectives that are specific with respect to magnitude and time.

A goal is a realistic, measurable, time-dated target of accomplishment in the future. Goals are
like stair steps to your mission and vision. Goals become the bridge to turn your mission and
vision to reality.

Setting goals converts the company’s mission, strategic vision and objectives into
specific performance targets, something the organization’s progress can be measured. Goals
represent a managerial commitment to achieving specific performance targets with a specific
time frame. Companies who set goals for each objective area and then press forward with actions
aimed directly at achieving these performance outcomes typically outperform companies who
exhibit good intentions, try hard, and hope for the best. (Thompson Strickland, p.36)

Goals ought to serve as a tool for stretching an organization to reach its full potential; this
means setting them high enough to be challenging to energize the organization and its strategy.
Company performance targets that require stretch and disciplined effort are best. A bold,
aggressive performance target pushes an organization to be more intentional and focused in its
actions. Setting bold, audacious goals and challenging the company to achieve them improves
the quality of the organization’s effort, promotes a can-do spirit, and builds self-confidence.
(Thomas Strickland, p.3, 5, 41)

For goals to function as yardsticks for tracking an organization’s performance and

progress, they must be stated in quantifiable or measurable terms, contain a deadline for
achievement, and state how much of what kind of performance by when. “You cannot manage
what you cannot measure…And what gets measured gets done.” (Bill Hewlett, cofounder of
Hewlett-Packard) Stating goals in measurable terms and then holding managers accountable for

21.
reaching their assigned targets with a specified time frame: provides strategic decision making
for what to accomplish provides a set of benchmarks for judging the organization’s performance.
(Thompson Strickland, p.36)

Performance target goals must be established not only for the organization as a whole,
but also for each of the organization’s separate businesses, product lines, functional areas, and
department. Every unit in a company needs concrete, measurable performance targets that
contribute meaningfully toward achieving company objectives. The ideal situation is a team
effort where each organizational unit strives to produce results in its area of responsibility that
contribute to the achievement of the company’s performance target goals and objectives.
(Thomas Strickland, p.3,5)

Goals must be stated in quantifiable or measurable terms. Goals track the company’s
progress on a regular basis through quantifiable measures. Measurable goals facilitate
management planning, implementation, and control. Goals must be measurable, or they’re only
good intentions.

The following examples are not a measurable goal:

My goal is to do better next year.

 Increasing revenues
 Improve liquidity, solvency, credit and collection policies
 Improve efficiency and productivity
 Achieve and maintain superior customer service
 Improve labor relations, human resource development and training
 Improve internal communications
 Redirect or restructure available resources
 Improve distributor and/or supplier relationships
 Improve marketing, advertising and public relations
 Capitalize on physical facilities (location, capacity, etc.)
 Improve organizational structure
 Goals must be realistic

Goals must be realistic, or they are a set up for failure. Set goals you know you can reach.
For many people emotionally, goal setting equals failure. If you do not have an average track
record, be sure and set goals that are realistic. Do not set unrealistically high goals, because they
may end up discouraging people. (Bobb Beihl)

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Goals must be consistent - Goals must maintain consistency and focus. Conflicting objectives
cause frustration and lack of focus. An example of an inconsistent goal is “long-term market
share increase and high current profits.”

Goals should be in pencil

Goals should be in pencil, or they become concrete boxes and are used like whips. Don’t
see goals as whips. You don’t have to reach every goal to make a significant difference. Another
reason goals should be in pencil, is because nobody knows what’s going to happen tomorrow.
The economy may fall, or surge. Goals are based on today, and they may need to change
tomorrow.

Goal setting should result in short-term, and longer-term performance targets. Short-range
goals focus organizational attention on the need for immediate performance improvements and
outcomes. Long-range goals focus organizational attention on what to do now to put the
company in position to perform well over the longer term. (Thompson Strickland, p.7)
Regardless of the type of goal, it is important for the company to view goals as motivational
targets, and exciting, measurable milestones for the future. It is suggested that a company has a
maximum of 2 goals per objective area. Your organization must decide the time frame that fits
your team best. The following are some examples:

Strategy Formulation

Strategy Formulation is an analytical process of selection of the best suitable course of

action to meet the organizational objectives and vision. It is one of the steps of the strategic
management process. The strategic plan allows an organization to examine its resources,
provides a financial plan and establishes the most appropriate action plan for increasing profits.It
is examined through SWOT analysis. SWOT is an acronym for strength, weakness, opportunity
and threat. The strategic plan should be informed to all the employees so that they know the
company’s objectives, mission and vision. It provides direction and focus to the employees.

Steps of Strategy Formulation

The steps of strategy formulation include the following:

1. Establishing Organizational Objectives: This involves establishing long-term goals of an

organization. Strategic decisions can be taken once the organizational objectives are determined.

23.
2. Analysis of Organizational Environment: This involves SWOT analysis, meaning
identifying the company’s strengths and weaknesses and keeping vigilance over competitors’
actions to understand opportunities and threats.

Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors which the company has control over.
Opportunities and threats, on the other hand, are external factors over which the company has no
control. A successful organization builds on its strengths, overcomes its weakness, identifies new
opportunities and protects against external threats.

3. Forming quantitative goals: Defining targets so as to meet the company’s short-term and
long-term objectives. Example, 30% increase in revenue this year of a company.

4 . Objectives in context with divisional plans: This involves setting up targets for every
department so that they work in coherence with the organization as a whole.

5. Performance Analysis: This is done to estimate the degree of variation between the actual
and the standard performance of an organization.

6. Selection of Strategy: This is the final step of strategy formulation. It involves evaluation of
the alternatives and selection of the best strategy amongst them to be the strategy of the
organization.

Strategy formulation process is an integral part of strategic management, as it helps in

framing effective strategies for the organization, to survive and grow in the dynamic business
environment.

Strategic Implementation

Implementation is the process that turns strategies and plans into actions in order to
accomplish strategic objectives and goals. Implementing your strategic plan is as important, or
even more important, than your strategy. The video The Secret to Strategic Implementation is a
great way to learn how to take your implementation to the next level.

Critical actions move a strategic plan from a document that sits on the shelf to actions
that drive business growth. Sadly, the majority of companies who have strategic plans fail to
implement them. According to Fortune Magazine, nine out of ten organizations fail to implement
their strategic plan for many reasons:

60% of organizations don’t link strategy to budgeting

75% of organizations don’t link employee incentives to strategy

24.
86% of business owners and managers spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy

95% of the typical workforce doesn’t understand their organization’s strategy.

A strategic plan provides a business with the roadmap it needs to pursue a specific
strategic direction and set of performance goals, deliver customer value, and be successful.
However, this is just a plan; it doesn’t guarantee that the desired performance is reached any
more than having a roadmap guarantees the traveler arrives at the desired destination.

25.
 CHAPTER 5

The Internet and the marketing mix

Learning Objectives;

 Apply the elements of the marketing mix in an online context

 Evaluate the opportunities that the internet makes available for varying the
marketing mix
 Assess the opportunities for online brand building

A marketing expert named E. Jerome McCarthy created the Marketing 4Ps in the 1960s.
This classification has been used throughout the world. Business schools teach this concept in
basic marketing classes.

The marketing 4Ps are also the foundation of the idea of marketing mix.

A. Product

A product is an item that is built or produced to satisfy the needs of a certain group of people.
The product can be intangible or tangible as it can be in the form of services or goods.

You must ensure to have the right type of product that is in demand for your market. So during
the product development phase, the marketer must do an extensive research on the life cycle of
the product that they are creating.

A product has a certain life cycle that includes the growth phase, the maturity phase, and the
sales decline phase. It is important for marketers to reinvent their products to stimulate more
demand once it reaches the sales decline phase.

Marketers must also create the right product mix. It may be wise to expand your current product
mix by diversifying and increasing the depth of your product line. All in all, marketers must ask
themselves the question “what can I do to offer a better product to this group of people

B. Price

The price of the product is basically the amount that a customer pays for to enjoy it. Price is
a very important component of the marketing mix definition.

It is also a very important component of a marketing plan as it determines your firm’s profit and
survival. Adjusting the price of the product has a big impact on the entire marketing strategy as
well as greatly affecting the sales and demand of the product.

26.
This is inherently a touchy area though. If a company is new to the market and has not made a
name for them yet, it is unlikely that your target market will be willing to pay a high price.

Although they may be willing in the future to hand over large sums of money, it is inevitably
harder to get them to do so during the birth of a business. Pricing always help shape the
perception of your product in consumers eyes. Always remember that a low price usually means
an inferior good in the consumer’s eyes as they compare your good to a competitor.

Consequently, prices too high will make the costs outweigh the benefits in customer’s eyes, and
they will therefore value their money over your product. Be sure to examine competitors pricing
and price accordingly.

When setting the product price, marketers should consider the perceived value that the product
offers. There are three major pricing strategies, and these are:

 Market penetration pricing

 Market skimming pricing
 Neutral pricing

C. Place

Placement or distribution is a very important part of the product mix definition. You have to
position and distribute the product in a place that is accessible to potential buyers.

This comes with a deep understanding of your target market. Understand them inside out
and you will discover the most efficient positioning and distribution channels that directly speak
with your market.

There are many distribution strategies, including:

 Intensive distribution
 Exclusive distribution
 Selective distribution
 Franchising

D. Promotion

Promotion is a very important component of marketing as it can boost brand recognition and
sales. Promotion is comprised of various elements like:

 Sales Organization
 Public Relations
 Advertising
 Sales Promotion

27.
 Advertising typically covers communication methods that are paid for like television
advertisements, radio commercials, print media, and internet advertisements. In contemporary
times, there seems to be a shift in focus offline to the online world.

Public relations, on the other hand, are communications that are typically not paid for. This
includes press releases, exhibitions, sponsorship deals, seminars, conferences, and events.

Word of mouth is also a type of product promotion. Word of mouth is an informal

communication about the benefits of the product by satisfied customers and ordinary individuals.
The sales staff plays a very important role in public relations and word of mouth. It is important
to not take this literally. Word of mouth can also circulate on the internet. Harnessed effectively
and it has the potential to be one of the most valuable assets you have in boosting your profits
online. An extremely good example of this is online social media and managing a firm's online
social media presence.

E. People, process and physical evidence

 People

People of both target market and people directly related to the business. Thorough research
is important to discover whether there are enough people in your target market that is in demand
for certain types of products and services. The company’s employees are important in marketing
because they are the ones who deliver the service. It is important to hire and train the right
people to deliver superior service to the clients, whether they run a support desk, customer
service, copywriters, programmers…etc.

When a business finds people who genuinely believe in the products or services that the
particular business creates, it's is highly likely that the employees will perform the best they can.

Additionally, they'll be more open to honest feedback about the business and input their
own thoughts and passions which can scale and grow the business.

This is a secret, “internal” competitive advantage a business can have over other competitors
which can inherently affect a business's position in the marketplace.

 Process

The systems and processes of the organization affect the execution of the service. So, you have
to make sure that you have a well-tailored process in place to minimize costs.

It could be your entire sales funnel, a pay system, distribution system and other systematic
procedures and steps to ensure a working business that is running effectively. Tweaking and
enhancements can come later to “tighten up” a business to minimize costs and maximise profits.

28.
  Physical evidence

In the service industries, there should be physical evidence that the service was delivered.
Additionally, physical evidence pertains also to how a business and it's products are perceived in
the marketplace. It is the physical evidence of a business' presence and establishment. A concept
of this is branding. For example, when you think of “fast food”, you think of McDonalds.

When you think of sports, the names Nike and Adidas come to mind. You immediately know
exactly what their presence is in the marketplace, as they are generally market leaders and have
established a physical evidence as well as psychological evidence in their marketing.

They have manipulated their consumer perception so well to the point where their brands
appear first in line when an individual is asked to broadly “name a brand” in their niche or
industry.

29.
 CHAPTER 6

Relationship marketing using the internet

Learning objectives;

 Assess the relevance of the concept of the relationships with direct and data based
marketing on the internet
 Evaluate the potential f the internet to support one to one marketing, and the range of the
techniques and systems available to support dialogue with the customer over the internet;
 Assess the characteristics required of tools to implement one to one marketing

A. Key concepts of relationship marketing

Relationship Marketing is a concept that is developed based on identifying customer

needs. The Organization will identify the needs of the customers and develop every activity
based on such needs.

The entire value system of the organization will be carried out based on the ability to satisfy
customer needs. In this concept it is seen that the customer is taking the center of attention, much
priority is given to the customers and even the decisions will be based on the customer
preferences.

In the current context, the driving force behind the success of every business is the customer
satisfaction and the customer loyalty. On the other hand the driving force behind customer
satisfaction is the relationship the businesses have with their customers and how their needs are
being addressed in the market context overall.

Much emphasis should be given to the area that is being researched on as it is the ultimate
requirement of every business that sells its product or service to the end consumer or vice versa.

B. Key concepts of electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM)

Electronic customer relationship management (E-CRM) is the application of Internet-based

technologies such as emails, websites, chat rooms, forums and other channels to achieve CRM
objectives. It is a well-structured and coordinated process of CRM that automates the processes
in marketing, sales and customer service.

An effective E-CRM increases the efficiency of the processes as well as improves the
interactions with customers and enables businesses to customize products and services that meet
the customers’ individual needs.

30.
C. Customer lifecycle management

Customer lifecycle management or CLM is the measurement of multiple customer-

related metrics, which, when analyzed for a period of time, indicate performance of a business.
The overall scope of the CLM implementation process encompasses all domains or departments
of an organization, which generally brings all sources of static and dynamic data, marketing
processes, and value added services to a unified decision supporting platform through iterative
phases of customer acquisition, retention, cross and up-selling, and lapsed customer win-back.

Some detailed CLM models further breakdown these phases into acquisition, introduction to
products, profiling of customers, growth of customer base, cultivation of loyalty among
customers, and termination of customer relationship.

According to a DM Review magazine article by Claudia Imhoff, et al., "The purpose of

the customer life cycle is to define and communicate the stages through which a customer
progresses when considering, purchasing and using products, and the associated business
processes a company uses to move the customer through the customer life cycle."

D. Approaches to implementing e-CRM

The success of e-CRM implementation is dependent on how the initiative is

deployed initially. There are no set guidelines to assist in differentiating the options for potential
adopters. This study examines three different approaches to e-CRM implementation by 3 SMEs
with a view to identifying commonalities and differences in approaches and how these impact
successes.

The three approaches are deployment of a bespoke e-CRM application, deployment of an

off-the-shelf application and deployment of a proprietary application. The study indicated all
three organizations gained benefits from e-CRM implementation although different processes,
technological platform and costs were involved. However, the challenges faced by the
organizations occurred in the medium term and ranged from application maintenance to
scalability and modification for changing processes.

31.
 CHAPTER 7

Delivering the Online Customer Experience

Learning Objectives:

 Describe the different stages involved in creating a site or re-launching an existing site;
 Describe the design elements that contribute to effective website content;
 Describe the factors that are combined to deliver an effective online customer
experience;
 Assess the difference in communications characteristic between digital and traditional
media.

Delivering the Online Customer Experience

The one of the key elements of the internet marketing is developing and maintaining an
effective web site. The web site should be able to deliver effective product and company related
communication to the correct audience. It should also be capable to handle e-commerce
transaction and have all the latest product offerings and related services.

The web site should deliver business efficiency and competitive advantage. The website Web

Site Design

Project Initiations the medium through which there is going to be interaction between the
company and the consumer.

Web Site Design-Planning

Any activity undertaken without short-term or long-term goals will create problems for an
organization. Therefore, it is necessary for an organization to give a thought before undertaking
the task of launching a web site. The some of the key activities which form part of web site
design are as follows:

Pre-development: this includes registration of the domain name and address with the hosting
website.

Site Design and Content: A clear understanding of the marketing objectives and expectation of
the website should be defined before web site design and contents.

Testing: to avoid any last minute disaster, enough scenario testing needs to be carried out before
the launch.

32.
Promotion: search engine registration and optimization are important steps before the launch of
the website.

The web design team also plays important role in the success of the site. A typical
website design team includes site sponsors, marketing team, project manager, designer, content
developer, webmaster and internal stakeholders. Before website gets finalized, it undergoes loads
of trial versions.

The initiation phase of web site design involves reviews with cost-benefit analysis. After
the success of project initiation, a decision is made to the development of website within agreed
budget and cost.

It is necessary to get the domain registered If the company is planning to launch a new
website. This step can be avoided if the project is update of existing website.

The next step in the project initiation is the selection of Internet Service Provider to host
the web site. The internet performance of the website is dependent on the service provider. Large
corporations usually undertake this task at their own network and server. The quality of the
website hosting is decided by the performance and availability of the website.

Understanding the user’s requirements

This stage of web site requires in-depth understanding of end user requirements. These needs
will be base of design and content development. Understanding of the user’ requirement is not
one-off exercise but has to be followed at every step of web site development. The company
needs understanding around the following:

 Users of the website

 Requirements website has to serve

 Website content

 Website Navigation

The design approach undertaken by the team is based on research of user’s profile and
requirements. It also includes a survey with marketing team and also includes sending out
surveys to other companies. Another approach to understanding requirements is through talk
with key customers, focus groups and also reviewing competition.

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Fabricating user experience

After understanding the requirements of the end user, the next step is to convert this into
the blue-print of the website. The blue print defines the framework, navigation and security of
the website. The web site framework should ensure that the website is customer oriented
supporting marketing initiative.

The effective final web site should have the following:

 Simplicity of browsing without information overload.

 Less complexity
 Home page option on each page
 Website page needs to have unique and appropriate layout. The appropriate layout
contains content, navigation and heading.
 The home page content plays a critical role in marketing effectiveness. It should
communicate a clear message about the company and its offerings.
Testing

After website development is done the next step is to undertake testing. The usability experience
is one of the key parameters of testing. The other important checking points of testing are as
follows:

 Check for content display under different types and version of the browser.
 Check for plug-ins
 Check for integration with overall database
 Check for spelling and grammar
 Ensure that all the links on the website work properly
 Testing is usually done on test server with restricted access and post approval it is moved
to live environment.

Web Site Promotion

Promotion of web site is a big component of internet marketing strategy. An organization

needs to develop a strong plan to ensure it is able to communicate the existence of the website
and also attract the correct set of users.

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Service Quality

The quality of the website is dependent of the utilities it provides to end users. Some of
the reasons for quality are as follows:

 The high quality content which satisfies user requirements.

 Convenience of use.
 Easy download on browser.
 Web pages are the latest and updated.
 Website has enough coupons and incentives.
 Website provides the latest internet technology.

Another important parameter to judge the quality of the website is reliability. The web site
should be available at all the time. Companies provide an email address for consumer to reach
out for any assistance, if this email is not delivered or goes unanswered than quality of the
website is not considered good.

To deliver an effective online experience to customers, organizations needs looks to many

factors like the visual appeal of the website, user friendliness, accessibility and performance.
And to get these companies need to undertake meticulous approach of planning and execution.
As the website development progress it becomes difficult and expensive to re-work the whole
project. Above all the website should provide the push to marketing objectives of the company.

35.
 CHAPTER 8

Campaign Planning for Digital Media

Learning Objectives:

 Identify the main success factors in managing a digital campaign;

 Understand the importance of integrating online and offline communications;
 Relate promotion techniques to methods of measuring site effectiveness;
 Assess the difference in communications characteristic between digital and traditional
media.

Characteristic of interactive marketing communications

 From push to pull

 From monologue to dialogue to trialogue
 From one to many to one to some and to one to one
 From one to many to many to many
 From lean-back to lean-forward
 Changes in nature of marketing communications
 Increase in communications intermediaries

Differences between digital marketing and traditional media

Media magnifies your marketing message, allowing you to tell people about your
amazing products and services.

Traditional media such as television, radio and print ads in newspapers and magazines
have long been the primary outlet for advertising campaigns, but added to this now are digital
channels like email and social media, that have increased the opportunities for companies, big
and small, to connect and spread the word. With so much choice, what is the best mix for your
next campaign? The best type of media for your marketing goals will depend on your ideal target
audience, your budget and the products or services you are promoting.

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Traditional Media

Television

This can be an expensive option in prime time spots but your ad can still reach broad
audiences, particularly if your campaign also includes placement within the network’s on-
demand site. With a smaller marketing budget, it’s worth looking for advertising opportunities
on specialized channels, such as those focused on sport, outdoor activities or cooking. These
channels have smaller viewer numbers but allow marketers opportunities to target a niche
audience.

Sponsoring popular TV shows can be highly effective option, in combination with an ad

campaign. Researchers at Think box found that when the brand personality and show had a good
fit it made the brand appear as more successful.

Radio

Radio is portable. You can reach people while they drive, work or walk the dog. Keep your
message short and sweet so that your ‘on the go’ audience knows what the offer is and how to
get in touch. Production costs may be relatively inexpensive. In fact most radio stations will
create the ad for you. As with all advertising, strong creative will always give you better cut
through and memo ability so while it may be low cost, it still has to be good at getting your
message across and building your brand preference. Your campaign proposal is likely to be a
bundle of stations with some spots in prime time and others in lower listening times. Negotiate
your campaign package for maximum frequency in prime time.

Print Ads (newspapers and magazines)

For print advertising, readership is your best guide. Many publications will advertise
circulation figures but if they are a free local tabloid, this may not equate to readership. Surveyed
readership figures may be quite a bit less. Printed media can give you a short exposure but in this
media, you may be reaching a more engaged audience – especially if they are sitting down to
read with a cup of coffee. Newspapers and magazines are also often seen as credible or trusted
sources and there may be publications that perform well in your industry that are best suited to
your products and services. If the magazine or newspaper has an online edition your ad will
reach a broader audience here.

Billboard Ads

Billboard ads provide broad access to customers in a specific geographical area. The
location of the site can be powerful and your performance will depend on your creative. Keep it
simple and if possible entertaining or clever. Costs for Billboard advertising include the monthly
site rental, creative artwork (which may include talent fees) and production of the billboard
‘skin'.

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Flyers / Letterbox drop

This can be a great way to put your brand in the hands of your customer. As with any
marketing activity, the key is to make sure your message is compelling and makes them want to
act, or you may end up in recycling. You don’t have to offer a huge discount but it’s worth
including a short time offer that drives store visits or enquiry. A physical coupon that you collect
from customers can be a good idea to help gauge your return on investment too.

Digital Marketing

A small budget is no longer an insurmountable barrier when it comes to marketing.

Digital marketing has given small businesses more tools to reach their audience with much
smaller budgets. Social media or email marketing campaigns can be created for little or no cost,
if you put in some time. Adding a bit of budget can boost your message to specific target groups.

Video Hosting sites

Television is not the only method for disseminating filmed advertisements. Now your
video can be shared on YouTube, Vimeo and other video hosting sites. Even if you create an ad
for TV, it is important to post here too. If your creative is engaging you get the power of online
sharing and the ‘viral’ effect. Platforms like YouTube are all about user generated content, There
are no middle men to pay. You own your channel and pay direct for any promotion of your
campaign. If you are using content created by someone else make sure you have the usage rights
or it has a creative commons license.

Display Advertising

Display or Banner ads usually include a headline, text and your web address and in
addition a graphic, video or sound. They are not limited to the search engine results pages. They
can appear while you search other sites across the internet, but still related to the searcher's
query. These ads can be targeted to audiences based on location, demographics and interests.
Google display ads appear on websites within the Google Display network which includes, news
sites, Gmail, YouTube and blogs. When someone clicks on your display ad they land on your
website so it’s important to make sure that the page they arrive on delivers on the promise of the
ad

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Email Marketing

Email can deliver a return on investment that is among the highest of all digital marketing
activities and part of the reason for this is that it is delivered directly to your customer – but you
will need a good database of contacts. Your contact list can be built organically through
consumer opt-in methods and you can offer something in return such as handy guides or e-books.
The cost of sending emails is low – But make sure your content is useful and compelling for
recipients. Your content needs to serve both your business goals and your customers’ needs.

Social Media

Your customers are there and you should be too. Social media channels help you reach
new and different audiences. Through sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram you
can build a relationship with fans and followers. The trick is to show your brand personality here.
So be yourself when you post comments, images, long form opinion and video.

Unlike your website, the communication is two-way. Make sure you respond to
comments and ask for engagement on things like surveys and competitions. If you post strike a
cord with your audience, they will like it, share it with their friends and you get even greater
reach.

Social Media Marketing

You can use social media platforms to target custom audiences and push your message
out well beyond your immediate fans and followers. Social media is certainly a powerful tool for
marketing because of the mass appeal of platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Advertising
helps you cut through the noise and promote your message above others. There are lots of
options to build your campaign target audience. In Facebook these include things like location,
age, gender, job title and interests. While there are costs involved you can set your maximum
budget and easily track what works and how many people you will reach. Your paid social media
marketing should be supported with organic methods too for best results.

Traditional Media or Digital Media?

The type of media you choose to use for your marketing campaign depends upon your
objectives and the audience you are trying to reach.

Marketing is now frequently a cross-media and multi-platform enterprise. Digital

marketing techniques can be enhanced when combined with old media and likewise traditional

39.
media campaigns like print, TV and radio should be shared and supported on your social media
platforms. Your target market is unlikely to consume only one type of media so make sure you
are using the best tools out there to broaden your reach, grow your business and achieve your
goals.

Key Campaign Planning Issues

The purpose of a marketing campaign plan is to identify relevant, integrated, marketing activities
and channels to reach campaign objectives as well as influence customers. An effective
campaign plan has an engaging, shareable, campaign concept which utilizes both online and
offline marketing communications tools and digital media channels.

The stages of marketing campaigns and key issues that need to be included in your campaign
plan are:

1. Campaign goals and tracking.

What are we trying to achieve through our campaign and how will we know when we
achieve it?

2. Campaign insight and targeting.

Who are we trying to reach and influence?

3. Key campaign messages and offers.

How are we trying to position our company, products and services?

Which campaign or product offers will engage and convert our audience?

4. Campaign media plan and budget.

Which media channels will you use to reach and influence your target audience?

What will be the sequence and integration of media activities?

5. Campaign asset production.

Managing the assets to form the campaign

6. Campaign execution.
7. What needs to be tested before the campaign is live and adjusted during the campaign?

40.
 CHAPTER 9

Marketing communications using digital media channel

Learning Objectives;
 Distinguish between the different types of digital media channels;
 Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each digital media channel for marketing
communications; and
 Asses the sustainability of different types digital media for different purposes

Channel performance measurement is a key activity when a sales organization employs

different types of channel partners. In more complex multi-channel structures, it becomes even
more important due to the number of people, processes, and roles involved. The performance of
a channel can be measured across multiple dimensions. The parameters that are measured usually
are effectiveness, efficiency, productivity, equity and profitability of the channel.

The various channels have different purposes in the value chain; however, each task needs to
support the overall corporate goals. As the number of channel partners increases, it is difficult to
ensure that the channel partners are performing their specific roles as effectively as required. For
example, the goal of a business might be to increase the number of strategic accounts. However,
in order to gather maximum possible commission, channel partners might be engaged in getting
the maximum number of accounts possible with total disregard towards prioritizing the
acquisition of strategic accounts. It is therefore important to audit the channel partners and
incentivize them for activities that are aligned with the corporate goals. The channel performance
should also be judged on the ability to fulfill given tasks. A few carefully chosen metrics can
give a good indication of the performance of each channel.

The channel performance measurement is primarily a four-step process.

1. Define Sales Objectives

The first step in channel performance measurement is to define the sales objectives for
the company. These objectives are outlined and discussed in sales meetings to ensure a shared
understanding between members of the marketing and sales teams.

2. Determine Channel Performance Metrics

Evaluating the performance of a distribution channel depends largely on the agreed upon
performance metrics. Choosing the right number and type of performance metrics can help to
monitor and improve the performance of channel partners. These metrics provide an
understanding of how well the channel partner is doing in reaching its performance targets.

41.
 Though it is possible to evaluate a channel on hundreds of performance metrics, this
would make reporting and analysis of the performance a cumbersome job. When determining
channel performance metrics, a key performance driver, such as sales or units sold, should be
chosen to identify and measure the most important tasks. A series of performance metrics are
then decided based on the key performance driver.

3. Set Channel Partner Targets

After overall sales objectives are defined, it is important to assign specific targets to each
of the channel partners to ensure they are in alignment with the overall objectives. Properly set
targets provide a benchmark to measure channel success, monitor performance, and take
corrective action to meet expectations. Each channel partner has a specific role towards fulfilling
the overall sales objectives. Performance targets should be set to reflect the channel partner’s
contribution to the overall objectives

4. Manage Channel Performance

This is the final step in channel performance measurement. It uses the agreed upon goals,
assigned performance targets, and identified performance metrics to manage channel
performance on an on-going basis and to identify the performance shortfalls of the channel
partners. During this step, management gains an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses
of each channel. Management can then take corrective action to ensure efficient performance of
the channel.

The success of a channel and its efficiency are determined by the efficiency of channel
intermediaries in delivering goods and services to customers and the quality of services offered
in the process. Developing a comprehensive marketing plan that provides clear and concise
direction about marketing activities and strategy is critical to the organization's success.

A. Search Engine marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the
promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs)
primarily through paid advertising.

SEM may incorporate search engine optimization (SEO), which adjusts or rewrites
website content and site architecture to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages to
enhance pay per click (PPC) listings.

B. Online Public Relations (E-PR, Digital PR)

Functions the web relationship influence among the cyber citizens and it aims to make
desirable comments about an organization, its products and services, news viewed by its target
audiences and lessen its undesirable comments to a large degree

42.
C. Online partnerships including affiliate marketing

In short, an affiliate partnership is an agreement between your affiliate program and

either another affiliate program, an individual, or a business to jointly promote each others’
products. There are many benefits to this tactic

D. Interactive display advertising

Uses online or offline interactive media to communicate with consumers and to promote
products, brands, services, and public service announcements, corporate or political groups.

In the inaugural issue of the Journal of Interactive Advertising,[1] editors Li and

Leckenby (2000) defined interactive advertising as the "paid and unpaid presentation and
promotion of products, services and ideas by an identified sponsor through mediated means
involving mutual action between consumers and producers". This is most commonly performed
through the internet; often through the use of an ad server that can deliver a variety of interactive
advertising units.

E. Opt-in-email marketing and mobile text messaging

The Top 5 Benefits of Combining Email Marketing with SMS

Every company needs to keep up with the times if they’re going to effectively engage their
audience and get the results they need. In the past few years, SMS (Short Message Service, better
known as text messaging) has burst onto the scene as a top communication platform.

Given the popularity of smart phones—which the vast majority of us keep at our sides at
all times—it’s no surprise that SMS and email marketing have become a powerful combination.
When used together, the results are powerful.

What’s there to gain by combining email marketing with SMS? In this post, we’re
sharing the top 5 benefits of combining email marketing with SMS.

1. Email marketing and SMS are entirely permission-based

SMS marketing requires the intended recipient to enter a short code before they begin
receiving messages. This is done to ensure that a person actually wants to receive messages from
an organization and that they’re not simply being spammed.

The reason this is a major plus for any organization using email marketing with SMS is that, by
entering the short code, the prospect is essentially saying, “Yes, I would like to learn more about
what you have to offer.”

43.
Similarly, email marketing requires subscribers to opt-in. Rather than targeting your audience
with ads they don’t want to see, email marketing and SMS offer a way to target the right people.
Those who opt in are interested in what you have to say, making them perfect prospects.

2. Both reach subscribers on their smartphones

SMS developed because it’s the perfect medium for a smartphone. However, what
remains less obvious is that more and more people use their phones to check their emails, too. In
fact, the majority of emails are read on phones – and that trend isn’t showing any signs of
reversing.

Ringly - SMS and email marketing

Thus, by combining email marketing with SMS, you’re almost guaranteed that your recipient
will notice your messages through at least one channel.

3. You can prep email subscribers via text

For the most part, shorter emails tend to perform better. People don’t want to spend the
time on reading longer messages. So, even if your subject line convinces them to open yours,
they may turn away after taking one look at how much time you’re asking them to spend on
reading it.

Unfortunately, sometimes, short emails won’t do justice to your message. For example,
introducing a new product or service usually requires a lengthy explanation of what it entails and
what its benefits are.

With SMS, you can send a short text message that tells prospects what to expect from an
upcoming email message. The great thing about this strategy is that you can use more words than
your email subject line would allow, yet as long as there’s no need to scroll, most recipients will
just instinctually read it. Keep your SMS messages to 160 characters and you shouldn’t have any
problems.

4. You can use SMS for quick responses

People often check emails on their phones, but that doesn’t necessarily improve their
response times – or even when the messages are initially checked.

If your company is launching a long-term sales campaign, this isn’t the end of the world.
However, if you’re attempting a flash-sale or want to take advantage of an unexpected
opportunity, this lack of response becomes a major problem.

That’s when combining your email marketing with SMS is the perfect solution. The average text
message is responded to within 90 seconds. So, whatever the offer, when you want instantaneous
results, combining email marketing with SMS is far superior to relying on email messages alone.

44.
5. You already have a large database

If you’re starting an email campaign from scratch, one of the biggest challenges you’ll
face is the fact that you don’t know your audience yet – at least not how they respond to emails.

This makes it nearly impossible to effectively utilize a segmentation strategy. You may need to
send several emails – or even go through an entire campaign – before you understand how to
best approach your market.

Fortunately, if you’ve already done this, you don’t have to worry – as much, anyway – about
doing this again with your SMS approach. At the very least, you already understand your
segments, so you know what kinds of messages will work best for each one.

Yes, you’ll still have some fine-tuning to do, but you won’t need to start with nothing like most
companies do with their email marketing campaigns—that’s a big advantage.

6. Use email to build relationships and SMS to secure commitment

Another way that combining email marketing with SMS will make it easier to reach your
company’s long-term goals is because of how well they complement each other when being used
for the same campaign.

F. Viral and electronic word-of-mouth marketing

Electronic Word of Mouth (WoM) is a powerful tool that can be used for digital
marketing. Although this has been in existence from quite a while, Innovation is essential in
order to reach out to more people. Considering that as a key, technology along with effective
marketing techniques can create digital revolution. This may include deployment of Web 2.0,
Augmented Reality (AR) techniques and unique concepts of online marketing - adding out to
publishing the 'word' over the world wide web. With the progressive development of technology
and exponential addition of crowd-sourced data it's possible to make digital marketing more
interactive. This paper brings in the most important fact - The Reach - of a marketer across peers
and society.

G. Offline promotion techniques

Marketing Techniques

Online marketing gets a lot of attention in the modern business world, but it’s important not to
discount the power of traditional offline marketing methods. Instead of having two disjointed
marketing campaigns – one for traditional and one for digital – brands are integrating both digital

45.
and offline marketing campaigns. Let’s explore some ideas for traditional offline marketing
techniques that work.

Five offline marketing strategies that can still benefit your business even in the digital age.

1. Print Marketing

“Old-fashioned” print marketing such as newspaper ads and catalog mailings are
effective ways to reach your target market. Giving customers a physical reminder of your
business links your online presence to the real world. Be sure to include both online and offline
contact information so customers can get in touch with you in the way that’s most convenient for
them.

2. Custom Signs and Banners

You should spend just as much time trying to be visible offline as you do on the Internet. Custom
signs and banners for your physical business location are eye-catching ways to remind customers
you’re there and to entice them to come and check out what’s new.

Banners are often used to alert potential customers of special sales at businesses, or can be used
for marketing at local events or sponsorships. A popular offline marketing strategy is sponsoring
a local youth sports team. These are often affordable sponsorships, and depending on where it’s
placed, can provide high visibility for your business.

Eye catching signs that match your business unique selling proposition can provide additional
touch points for the customers to hear your message. Strategically placed around your physical
business, or brought out for special occasions, can drive incremental foot traffic for your small
business.

3. Conferences and Trade Shows

Being visible on a personal business can take your business to customer relationship to a high
level faster than other non-personal methods. Attending conferences gives you the opportunity to
meet and network with potential partners in your industry. Setting up a booth at a trade show
connects you with a fresh group of consumers who are interested in your products and services.
Use these events as opportunities to hand out business cards, brochures and flyers printed with
your company information.

It’s important to stand out from all other industry competitors and get creative with your booth
display and how you interact with customers. I recently showcased a few inspiring trade show
displays of some of the top tech companies at the top trade shows. What can you do differently
to stand out from the crowd?

46.
4. Free Giveaway Items

Giveaway items are a dime a dozen at tradeshow events, but they’re so common because
they work. It’s almost impossible to measure direct ROI on these giveaway items, so see them
more as a way to get your brand out there. If you can afford higher quality products such as
Moleskine notebooks, quality sports water bottles, or other unique items, these can carry a longer
shelf life than your standard t-shirts and pens.

Additionally, you can send free branded promotional products out with every order to increase
brand visibility and build a positive relationship with customers. You might also consider
offering free shipping or a free product when customers place an order over a certain amount to
give them an incentive to continue shopping with you. Little surprises like these will differentiate
you in the eyes of the customer and can increase your customer loyalty.

5. Hosting Special Events

Setting up in-store events such as grand openings and anniversary sales brings back loyal
customers and attracts curious passers-by. Your event doesn’t have to be big to be successful.
Even something simple like a pre-Christmas “party” with music, a Santa and special deals can be
effective to draw people in. As long as the event is relevant to your business and fun for
customers, it will be memorable for everyone who attends.

As a bonus idea for merging online and offline tactics, consider inviting Elite Yelpers
from Yelp to exclusive openings or parties. Not only will the pampering you provide these elite
reviewers to see your company in a favorable light, but they carry a degree of online clout that
can give you a boost in your online visibility as well.

Balancing online marketing with tried and true offline techniques keeps your business visible to
local audiences and helps establish credibility. Work these and other “old-school” methods into
your advertising strategy to grow your customer base and stay ahead of the competition.

47.
 CHAPTER 10

Evaluation and improvement of digital channel performance

Learning Objective

 Identify the tasks necessary when managing an online presence;

 Understand terms used to measure and improve site effectiveness;
 Develop an appropriate process to collect measures for internet marketing effectiveness

Is a key activity when a sales organization employs different types of channel partners. In
more complex multi-channel structures, it becomes even more important due to the number of
people, processes, and roles involved. The performance of a channel can be measured across
multiple dimensions. The parameters that are measured usually are effectiveness, efficiency,
productivity, equity and profitability of the channel.

The various channels have different purposes in the value chain; however, each task needs to
support the overall corporate goals. As the number of channel partners increases, it is difficult to
ensure that the channel partners are performing their specific roles as effectively as required. For
example, the goal of a business might be to increase the number of strategic accounts. However,
in order to gather maximum possible commission, channel partners might be engaged in getting
the maximum number of accounts possible with total disregard towards prioritizing the
acquisition of strategic accounts. It is therefore important to audit the channel partners and
incentivize them for activities that are aligned with the corporate goals. The channel performance
should also be judged on the ability to fulfill given tasks. A few carefully chosen metrics can
give a good indication of the performance of each channel.

A. Performance management for digital channels

To improve results for any aspect of any business, performance management is vital. The
processes and systems intended to monitor and improve the performance of an organization, are
known by business operations researchers as performance management systems and are based on
the study of performance measurement systems.

A good starting point is to understand the current improvement process and the
organizational barriers which prevent a suitable improvement process. We will review
approaches to performance management by examining three key elements of an Internet
marketing measurement system. These are, first the process for improvement, and secondly, the
measurement framework which specifies groups of relevant digital marketing metrics and,

48.
finally, an assessment of the suitability of tools and techniques for collecting, analyzing,
disseminating and auctioning results

B. The maintenance process

Actions necessary for retaining or restoring a piece of equipment, machine, or system to

the specified operable condition to achieve its maximum useful life. It includes corrective
maintenance and preventive maintenance.

C. Responsibilities in website maintenance

Performing all the tasks necessary to keep a website up to date and in good, working
order so that it works and shows up correctly with the latest web browsers and mobile devices

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 CHAPTER 11

Business-to-consumer internet marketing

Learning objectives:

1. Identify the tasks necessary when managing an online presence;

2. Understand terms used to measure and improve site effectiveness;

3. Develop an appropriate process to collect measures for internet marketing effectiveness;

4. Understand online shopping behavior, and more specially how consumer profiles and
online experiences shape and influence the extent to which individuals are likely to engage with
the online trading environment.

The consumer perspective: online consumer behavior

Consumer behavior is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and all the
activities associated with the purchase, use and disposal of goods and services, including the
consumer’s emotional, mental and behavioral responses that precede or follow these activities.
Consumer behavior emerged in the 1940’s and 50’s as a distinct sub-discipline in the marketing
area. Consumer behavior is an inter-disciplinary social science that blends elements from
psychology, sociology, social anthropology, ethnography, marketing and economics especially
behavioral economics. It examines how emotions, attitudes and preferences affect buying
behavior. Characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics, personality, lifestyle
and behavioral variables such as rates, usage, occasion, loyalty, brand advocacy, willingness to
provide referrals, in an attempt to understand people’s wants and consumption are all
investigated in formal studies of consumer behavior.

The study of consumer behavior also investigates the influences, on the consumer, from
groups such as family, friends, sports, reference groups, and society in general.

The study of consumer behavior is concerned with all aspects of purchasing behavior-
from pre-purchase activities through to post-purchase consumption, evaluation and disposal
activities. It is also concerned with all persons involved.

50.
What Is Electronic Retailing – E-tailing?

Electronic retailing (E-tailing) is the sale of goods and services through the internet. E-
tailing can include business-to-business (B2B) and business-to- consumer (B2C) sales of
products and services. E-tailing requires companies to tailor their business models to capture
internet sales, which can include building out distribution channels such as warehouses, internet
webpages, and product shipping centers. Strong distribution channels are critical to electronic
retailing as these are the avenues that move the product to the customer. Electronic retailing
includes a broad range of companies and industries. However, there are similarities between
most e-tailing companies that

include:

 An engaging website
 Online marketing strategy
 Efficient distribution of products or services
 Customer data analytics


Business-To-Business (B2B) E-Tailing

Business to business retailing involves companies that sell to other companies. Such retailers
include consultants, software developers, freelancers, and wholesalers. Wholesalers sell their
products in bulk from their manufacturing plants to businesses. These businesses, in turn, sell
those products to consumers. In other words, a B2B company such as a wholesaler might sell
products to a B2C company

Traits of Successful E-tailer’s

Earning Revenue Through E-Tailing Advantages of Electronic Retailing E-tailer’s are

convenient allowing consumers to shop from the comfort of their homes at any time of the day.

Buy online and pick up in the store allows consumers to have the best of both retail

worlds. Infrastructure costs are less for electronic retailing versus physical location retail sales.

Companies can move products faster and reach more customers online compared to physical
locations.

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Implications for e-retail marketing strategy

Content Marketing

is the process of creating onlinematerial (e.g. blog posts, videos, infographics, GIFs,

images, etc.) that attracts your target audience. It is not used for selling directly, but as a way to
educate potential customers about your product(s), develop thought leadership and raise
awareness about your brand.

Referral Marketing

is when you deliberately influence the process of word-of-mouth, whether it is

encouraging more sharing, or positioning the sharing to be positive.

Referral marketing is the secret weapon of many eCommerce companies.

Email Marketing

is simply sending promotional emails to people have given you permission.

You can send all sorts of emails to your prospects and customers. For example, you can send an
email urging your customers to take advantage of some exclusive, time-sensitive discount.

Instagram Marketing

Facebook Ads

Despite the troubles facing Mr. Zuckerberg,MFacebook still remains one of the most
powerful advertising platforms available to marketers. There is no other ad platform with this
level of targeting. You can choose to target your ads based on location, age, language, education,
life events, interests, behaviors, and so on. You can even add a Facebook pixel on your website,
and retarget people who have visited your website, but did not make a purchase.

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 CHAPTER 12

Business-to-business internet marketing

Learning objectives:

1. Explain the meaning of electronic market place and discuss the advantages and
disadvantages of trading in electronic markets;

2. Understand the applications of organization seeking to operate efficiently and effectively

online

3. Identify the factors which are likely to influence whether an organization operating in
B2B markets is trading online; and

4. Discuss how organization is using internet technologies as part of their online marketing
strategy.

B2B Trading environments and electronic marketplaces

B2B is often contrasted with business-to-consumer (B2C). In B2B commerce, it is often

the case that the parties to the relationship had comparable negotiating power, and even when
they do not, each party typically involves professional staff and legal counsel in the negotiation
of terms, whereas B2C is shaped to a far greater degree by economic implications of information
asymmetry . However, within a B2B context, large companies may have many commercial,
resource and information advantages over smaller businesses. The United Kingdom government,
for example, created the post of Small Business Commissioner under the Enterprise Act 2016 to
"enable small businesses to resolve disputes" and "consider complaints by small business
suppliers about payment issues with larger businesses that they supply."

Business-to-Business companies represent a significant part of the United States

economy. This is especially true in firms of 500 employees and above, of which there were
19,464 in 2015,where it is estimated that as many as 72% are businesses that primarily serve
other businesses. E-market place is a virtual online market platform where companies can
register as buyers and sellers to conduct business to business transactions over the internet. The
use of the internet has helped remove intermediaries in a transaction. It It enables the buyers to
compare various

Products and services by different measures like performance, quality, price etc. Buyers
get access to a broader range of products and services. On the other hand the sellers can reach the
customers more conveniently and affordably. Sellers gets to enter new markets, find new buyers

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and increase sales by generating more value for the buyers. is a web based information system
which provides opportunities for both suppliers and buyers

Types of the E-marketplace

Electronic marketplaces are generally classified into 4 types

1. Independent E-marketplace

The basic motive of this model is to generate revenue. A B2B platform which is managed by a
third party and is open to buyers and sellers from a particular industry. When a party registers on
an independent e-marketplace it gets quotations or bids in a particular sector.

Example- Alibaba

2. Buyer-oriented marketplace

A bunch of people with similar business interests come together to create an efficient purchase
environment. This helps a party get sufficient bargaining power to purchase at a desired price
from the supplier. A supplier can also benefit from this marketplace as it gives them a customer
base with which they can share their catalogue.

Example - Amazon

3. Supplier-oriented marketplace

This type of marketplace is also known as supplier’s directory. It provides a platform for the
seller to improve their visibility through different mediums of communication. The suppliers can
target the large number of potential buyers.

Example - Ebay

4. Horizontal and vertical marketplace

Horizontal marketplace- The buyers and supplier from different industries or regions
can come together to make a transaction.

Vertical marketplace- It provides access over the internet to various segments of a

particular industry up and down the hierarchy.

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Online marketing efficiency gains

There are several ways and means of really bringing out the very best in an online
marketing strategy. Understanding how online marketing works is of vital

importance. Below is an overview as to why online marketing is so effective as an advertising

medium and the various tools that you can make use of to achieve the most desired results.

Online marketing gives business owners the freedom to advertise and promote their
products or services and receive immediate response. Business owners can reap the benefits of
this method of marketing as it is inexpensive and easy to start. All you need to do is choose an
advertising medium that works for you and your businesses objectives. Your site will ultimately
receive more traffic and thus more sales. The online marketing strategy you choose will increase
your site’s visibility so that you get more qualified visitors. Notably, the following types of
online marketing strategies are tractable and enable advertisers to ultimately increase their return
on their investment (ROI).

Analyzing the factors which influence the adaptation of internet technologies

Purpose

– To explore the factors that affect the implementation of Internet technologies and to
what extent the size of the company, as an organizational factor, influences that process.

Design/methodology/approach

– According to the innovation adoption theory, it was found that Internet adoption in
firms is a process with different stages where a company is in one of a number of development
stages depending on some variables related to organizational factors, such as the availability of
technology resources, organizational structure, and managerial capabilities. The paper identified
empirically different stages in the Internet adoption process and linked them with those factors. It
analyzed questionnaire‐based data from 280 companies, applying factor and clustering analysis.

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Findings

–Four main groups of companies were found according to their stage in the adoption of
Internet technologies. The paper established that, contrary to the literature suggestions, the size
of the company does not have any effect on the availability of these Internet technologies but it
does for managerial capabilities.

The smaller the size of the firm, the greater the possibilities of using external advice in
adopting Internet technologies, because small firms usually have fewer managerial capabilities.
In the meantime a more sophisticated technology development was identified in larger firms.

Research limitations/implications

As in all empirical research, the characteristics of this study limit the applicability of the
findings. First, the study concentrated in businesses that already were using Internet
technologies, because they have registered their domain name. Consequently, the study firms
that did not have a Spanish domain name were omitted; however, firms could have a “.com” or
“.org” domain name and still be Spanish firms. Also, other companies without any domain name
on the Internet were not included in the study.

Second, the study applied a classification analysis with exploratory purposes about the
characteristics of the business according to the cluster of pertinence. Nevertheless, a longitudinal
study could be more useful explaining whether or not these companies follow the process
described.

Third, a more detailed questionnaire with more specific questions could be more helpful
to gain a better description of the phases of a more sophisticated technology adoption (i.e.the
acceptance/reutilization and infusion stages).

Practical implications

This paper has some relatively important managerial implications. First, the fact of
having a domain name does not mean that the companies are in the acceptance/ reutilization
phase and even less in the infusion phase. From this, the paper identified how the majority of
firms were in the so‐called initial stages of the Internet technologies adoption process. Second, it
is possible that managers who do not perceive the strategic value of these technologies are
managing the majority of these firms. Third, as more businesses implement these technologies in
their processes, presumably more competitive pressure will exist to adopt Internet technologies.

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Originality/value

This paper contributes to the research into the organizational factors that affect Internet
adoption.

Digital marketing strategies

Digital marketing is pretty self-explanatory — it’s marketing using digital tools. Digital
marketing is about the type of methodology under which we USE those tools. It’s the opposite of
outbound marketing, or interruption marketing (telemarketing, billboards, spam, etc.). You
canread more about in our article “Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing.”

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