INTERNET MARKETING
INTERNET MARKETING
OVERVIEW
The availability of Internet access, especially the World Wide Web, facilitates communication among users as well as developers of Web sites. This has also led to consideration of resource allocation issues among designers, developers and maintainers of these systems.
INTERNET MARKETING
Some call it Digital marketing, online marketing web marketing, search marketing or e-marketing and it is widely known as Internet Marketing. It refers to marketing or promoting services or products by using the Internet.
Internet marketing utilizes the Internet and related digital technologies to support the modern marketing concept and achieve marketing goals. These technologies include the Internet medi and other digital media such as wireless mobile media, cable and satellite. In practice, Internet marketing will include the use of a company web site in conjunction with online promotional techniques such as search engines, banner advertising, direct e-mail and links or services from other web sites to acquire new customers and provide services to existing customers that help develop the customer relationship.
IMPORTANCE OF INTERNET MARKETING
For companies such as electronics equipment manufacturer Cisco (www.cisco.com), the answer is ‘very 
significant’. Cisco now gains over 90% of its multi-billion dollar global revenue online. It also conducts many of its other business processes such as new product development and customer service online. Similarly, easyJet (www.easyjet.com), the low-cost European airline gains 90% of its tickets sales online and aims to fulfill the majority of its customer service requests via the Internet. However, the picture is quite different for the manufacturers of high-involvement purchases such as cars or fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands. Here the impact is less significant – the majority of their consumer sales still occur through traditional retail channels.
However, the influence cannot be described as insignificant any longer since the Internet is becoming increasingly important in influencing purchase decisions – many new car purchasers will research their purchase online, so manufacturers need to invest in Internet marketing to persuade customers of the features and benefits of their brands. The FMCG manufacturer finds that consumers are spending an increasing proportion of their time on the Internet and less time using other media so the Internet has become an effective way of reaching its target markets. The Internet can be used to increase the frequency and depth of interactions with the brand, particularly for brand loyalists who are the advocates of these brands.
AVOIDING INTERNET MARKETING ERRORS
Theodore Levitt, writing in the Harvard Business Review (Levitt, 1960), outlined the factors that underlie the demise of many organizations and at best seriously weaken their longer-term competitiveness. These factors still provide a timely reminder of traps that should be avoided when embarking on Internet marketing.
1) Wrongly defining which business they are in.
2) Focusing on:
a) products (many web sites are still product-centric rather than customer-centric);
b) production;
c) technology (technology is only an enabler, not an objective); selling (the culture on the Internet is based on customers seeking information to make informed buying decisions rather than strong exhortations to buy); rather than:
d) customer needs (the need for market orientation is a critical aspect of web site design and Internet marketing strategy)
e) market opportunities (the Internet should not just be used as another channel, but new opportunities for adding value should be explored).
3) Unwillingness to innovate and ‘creatively destruct’ existing product/service lines.
4) Shortsightedness in terms of strategic thinking.
5) The lack of a strong and visionary CEO (Baker (1998) found that this was important to companies’ using the Internet effectively).
6) Giving marketing only ‘stepchild status’ , behind finance, production and technology.