E-Marketing

E-Marketing or E-Advertising / Internet Marketing

Introduction to E-Marketing and E-Advertising / Internet Marketing

E-Marketing and E-Advertising / Internet Marketing – The idea of the internet was conceived in the 1960s when it was developed as ARPANET in the USA. The idea was to interconnect all the defense installations in the USA. The actual commercialization of the Internet was in 1991 when the World Wide Web was opened for commercial purposes. The basic reason why Internet marketing flourished was that it suited the needs of the Producer as well as the Consumer.

                       E-marketing must be defined to include the management of the consumer’s online experience of the product, from the first encounter through purchase to delivery and beyond. Digital marketers should care about the consumer’s online experiences for the simple reason that all of them good, bad, or indifferent-influence consumer perceptions of a product or brand.

     The quick and vast growth of E-marketing was because of the following reasons:

(1)It suited the needs of Producer/seller as well as consumers.

(2)The huge cost-effectiveness it provided.

(3)Very rapid development of infrastructure related to internet and internet marketing.

The E-Marketing suited thoroughly the needs of producers and consumers.

Usage to Producers

(1)Accurate and efficient market surveys can be conducted easily.

(2)Companies can sense the present trends in the market by saying having a cluster of supermarkets online.

(3)One of the most efficient and widely followed production techniques, JIT(Just In Time)requires constant monitoring of market trends.

Usage to customer

(1)It truly makes the customer feel like a KING because the customer not only can choose the best product but can also negotiate its price.

(2)As the middlemen are avoided, the customer can directly interact with the company and let the company know of his opinions.

(3)Usually the consumer feels constrained when he has to compare products of rival companies in a market. But Internet Marketing allows him to have comparisons of goods and thus enables him to choose the best,

Advantages of E-Marketing

(1)It educates the customer.

(2)Helps in the introduction of new products/technology.

(3)Lets the consumer know the complete cache of products.

(4)Safeguards the customer against malpractices prevalent in the market.

(5)Stimulates the customer into buying.

 Internet Advertising and their Models

It is well said, “Advertising is a necessary evil”.The advertising model should be selected carefully so that it doesn’t confront future customers nor should it hurt the interest of the organization.

                 E-Advertising not only coexisted with traditional aspects of business models but also helped in their development.

There are 2 paradigms developed in the E-Advertising model. They are:

      (1)Push based advertising

                (2)Pull based advertising

Push based advertising:  It is active advertising i.e.it actively involves the seller into the model.This model is divided into 2 parts

               (1)Broadcast model

               (2)Junk model

Broadcast model

The broadcast model mimics the traditional model, in which advertisements were in Television programs. This required spot TV, cable TV, and direct mail for its implementation. One of the major advantages of the broadcast model is that message is transferred with sound, sight, and motion. Therefore it is more appealing to the people. The penetration of this technique is high. The disadvantages of the Broadcast model is:

(1)The time slots are very expensive.

          (2)The consumer has to be fed with such ads for a period of time for him to notice the ad.

           (3)A cluster of ads drastically reduces the attention of customers.

Junk mail model: The junk mail model is one of the easiest models to implement but the paranoid is that it has the lowest penetration. Sometimes this set of techniques evokes such strong reactions from the user that now in the USA there is a national policy on spam control on the internet and mobile phones.

                                  This advertising involves direct mailing the message to the customer. Generally, the mails are broadcasted to all the users. The message in these mails is rather objective trying to loathe the customer and instill in them the fear for rival’s product.

                                  In fact, the sender firms know that most of the users will simply discard these messages but the cheapness and wide coverage of this model compel them to use this model.

Pull based advertising model: The pull-based model is much more interactive than the push-based model and this works in favor of this model. The interactive nature of this model internet marketing are: Adaptive, Flexible, Responsive.

The pull based advertising model provides feedback loop,which connects the consumer to the company.This makes this technique an ideal marketing technique.

This advertising strategy has a twin advantage of:

    (1)Direct interaction with the consumer.

     (2)Creation f database of consumer details and their tastes.

The Pull based advertising model includes:

      (1)Billboards

      (2)Catalogues/Yellow pages

       (3)Endorsements

Billboards

Billboard model is also the World Wide Web model,which involves setting of web pages of the company.Those kind of advertising is used to place informayion easily accessible to the consumer.This is used to reinforce the consumer to the messages communicated through other models. This model is solely dependent on the www and the infrastructure needed to support it. The only disadvantage of the billboard is that the consumer has to spend his payable viewing time on it. Therefore billboards have to be thoroughly objective and be more of pictorial than literature so that it is understandable in minimum time.

Catalog/Yellow page directory model

This is basically a database model in which the required object is searched by the user. This model is the least intrusive of all models and in fact, the consumer himself takes pain to gather information. This model involves maintaining a database of products, company addresses, and addresses of the distributors in one place. We can search the products one category through the directory. The big users of yellow pages are emerging buyers, new buyers, and customers of less frequently purchased goods.

Endorsements

Endorsements are one of the most effective advertisement models available on the net and offered publicly in an interactive medium. Endorsements involve a person sharing his experiences with other future probable consumers and forcing him to look into studying the endorsed product. Endorsements also have the advantage that if a person does not seem to agree to the views held, he/she can pose his disagreement and thus start a healthy debate. This makes the producers and consumers aware of the products or services. These were the various models used in Internet Marketing.

Internet marketing has been perceived as the best thing to happen to world commerce and it is believed this model shall last very long.

7 C’s of E-Marketing

As opposed to the 4 P’s of brick and mortar marketing, the changing outlook in the area of e-marketing can be explained on the basis of 7 C’s of e-marketing.

Contract: The e-marketer’s first goal is to communicate a core promise for a truly distinctive value proposition appealing to the target customers.

Content: It refers to whatever appears on the website itself and on hot-linked websites. If chosen appropriately,it can increase both the rates at which browsers are converted into buyers and their transactions.

Construction: The promises made by e-marketers are not unique to the internet, but the medium’s interactive capabilities make it easier for them to deliver on their promises quickly, reliably, and rewardingly.

Community: Through site to user and user to user forms of interactivity(such as chat rooms), e-marketers can develop a core of dedicated customers who become avid marketers of the site too.

Concentration: Targeting through online behavioral profiling. Advertisers have known for some time that behavioral targeting is vastly superior to simple demographic targeting. Knowledge of a consumer’s past purchases interests, likes/dislikes, and behavior, in general, allows an advertiser to target an advertisement much more effectively.

Convergence: We will soon enter the next round of the E-marketing battle as broadband reaches the masses.The Internet will become more ubiquitous and wireless, televisions will become more interactive, video/data/voice appliances will converge, brand advertising and direct marketing practices will integrate ,domestic brands, commerce and marketing will become even more global and big marketing spenders will spend more money online.

Commerce: The last emerging fundamental of e-marketing is commerce, whether it includes offering goods and services directly or marketing those of another company for a fee,thus helping to cover the fixed costs of site operations and to offset customer acquisition costs.

Conclusion

Internet marketing has emerged as a major player in the world of commerce all over the world.Due to its apparent advantages, it has a major edge over the conventional ways of commerce prevalent in the world. This has resulted in a run-a-way success for Internet marketing and e-commerce in today’s time.Thus we find that Internet marketing has become indispensable for an efficient marketing strategy of any firm and it is quite sure that its popularity shall grow in the near future.