Marketing and selling in tough economic conditions:

Internet marketing

Prasanna Perera, Marketing and Management Consultant, Chartered Marketeer, CIM UK

With the advent of the Internet, on-line marketing has grown by leaps and bounds. The biggest attraction of e-marketing is the low relative cost and customer interaction.

What is internet marketing?

Can be simply defined as "Achieving marketing objectives through applying digital technologies." The term 'Internet Marketing' tends to refer to an external perspective of how the Internet can be used in conjunction with traditional media to acquire and deliver services to customers.

The definition of marketing refers to the identification, anticipation and satisfaction of consumer needs and wants. e-Marketing can be used for marketing research to find out customers needs and wants. The Internet provides an additional channel by which customers can access information and make purchases. A key success factor in e Marketing is achieving customer satisfaction through electronic channels.

Is internet marketing useful for all products and services?

Generally Yes, but for certain product and service categories the usefulness is limited. Internet Marketing is ideal for books, CD's, stationery, gifts, vacations, restaurants and hotels. It is less useful for expensive and high risk products such as jewellery, luxury vehicles, as well as bulky products such as furniture, fittings and fixtures.

The internet and branding

What constitutes a successful on-line brand? Is it an e-commerce site with high levels of traffic? It is a brand with good name recognition? Is it a profitable brand? Although sites meeting only some these criteria are often described as successful brands, a successful on-line brand is dependent on a wide range of factors.

* The promise of achievement, to assist consumers in achieving their goals, for example supporting on-line investors in their decisions.

* The promise of convenience, making a purchase experience convenient than the real world one.

* The promise of fun and adventure

* The promise of self expression and recognition, provided by personalization services such as Yahoo!

* The promise of belonging, provided by on-line communities

The Internet presents a "double - edged sword" to existing brands.

The Internet offers the consumer a wider choice of brands, which encourages trial of other brands, resulting in reduced brand loyalty to existing brands.

The internet and marketing communications

The Internet offers a new, additional marketing communications channel to inform customers of the benefits of a product and assist in the buying decision. There are different approaches for looking at how the Internet can be used to vary the promotion element of the mix :

* Reviewing new ways of applying each of the elements of the communications mix

* Assessing how the Internet can be used at different stages of the buying process.

* Using promotional tools to assist in different stages of CRM, from customer acquisition to retention.

The communication element of a marketing plan also requires three important decisions about investment for the on-line promotion or on-line communication mix.

* Investment in site promotion compared to site creation and maintenance

* Investment in on-line promotion techniques in comparison to off-line promotion

* Investment in different on-line promotion techniques

On-line customers

As a result of the characteristics of the virtual shopping environment, the on-line consumer experience can become very goal oriented and consumers can go to the Internet to seek particular information about the products and services they wish to buy.

On-line shoppers can differ from off-line shoppers in terms of profiles. On-line shoppers tend to be younger, wealthier, better educated and have high expectations in the following areas:

* Logistics and the link between Internet ordering and delivery of the product

* Security and privacy of information

* Timeliness in terms of response times and a speedy shopping experience

* Convenience to compare prices online and access to a range of products and services

* Availability of products for immediate delivery

There are several variables which are unique to on-line consumer markets. They are -

* Customisation (Tailor-made content)

* Customer Interactivity (Buyer / seller relationship)

* Convenience (Perceived comparative advantage of on-line shopping)

* Choice (Greater choice on-line)

* Character (Website design)

In this brief article, I have addressed certain elements of e-Marketing, which are important for practising marketeers to understand. With the growth of information technology, marketeers would do well to leverage IT, to successfully market products and services and build relationships with customers.

e-Marketing is here to stay and the Internet has become another lucrative channel for marketing products and services.