Electronic Marketing
By Kenneth Zimmerman, Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo
As the world of marketing information becomes more and more complex, marketers should strive to simplify their decision making processes. Over the last twenty—five years, marketing data have grown by volumes to the point of intimidation, and this overflow of data has been fanned by computer resources, either PC, mini, or main¬frame machines. Fortunately, these same computer tools are being harnessed by marketers to assist in the analysis, planning, and implementation of marketing programs, in both consumer and business-to-business situations. Improved communications and enhanced corporate memory are the results of the marketer’s electronic environment, whether the business comprises of two employees to two thousand employees. Any enterprise benefits from improvements in operational efficiency and effectiveness, and the marketing function is now embracing more electronic resources as computing costs go down and computing utility goes up. It has been said that a successful marketer’s career depends on two qualities — the ability to organize and the ability to persuade. The purpose of this textbook is to assist marketers and marketing students in recognizing the value of electronic marketing resources and to demonstrate how to integrate these electronic tools into each stage of the marketing process. Better organization through improved segmentation strategy or better database management as well as enhanced execution of online communications channels leads to better management of the marketing function that, of course, leads to better performance. The ability to organize, be it marketing research, prospect profiles, segmentation or media strategies, customer communications systems, or database arrangements, allows the marketer to stay on track with firm direction. Likewise, knowing the shortest distance between two points, say from the marketing concept to market consumption, is worth its weight in gold to any company. While this textbook does not deal with the second marketing quality of persuasion, well-designed and carefully considered marketing programs can be quite persuasive to the marketer’s superiors and peers. Concise strategies do speak volumes.
The content of this textbook and the experiences and examples of marketing activities have been drawn from the collective business backgrounds and education of its three authors. Their experience spans three decades of marketing history. As they all have specialties within the applied marketing arenas, the authors stand united in their approach to harnessing electronic resources to improve the steps of the marketing process. The stages of a traditional marketing approach, specifically engaging in a situation analysis that leads to the marketing planning and then advances a pattern of marketing implementation, are carefully followed. The authors believe the methods by which marketing success is attained can be made more accurate and timely. The book proposes to introduce and integrate the best practices for the contemporary marketing process. The reader will note that the content of the text is ultimately directed toward enhancing decision making among promotional tools, primarily advertising and other forms of communications. In traditional marketing, the promotional element is a costly portion of the marketing budget. Can the promotional effort become more cost effective and efficient?
This leads to the applications for the Internet, more specifically the World Wide
Web. The Web is recognized as a tremendously flexible medium that is well suited to
the marketing function. The Web will be used in several manners in this textbook: as
a research tool, as an exposure tool for advertising and other promotional activities, as
a customer contact vehicle, as well as a customer feedback vehicle. The ‘Web performs admirably in all of these research and communications tasks, but it is wise to remember that currently the World Wide Web can muster household penetration of less than 25 percent. Other traditional media such as newspaper or television are still needed to reach the maximum of consmner groups. In other words, the net of the Web is still not sufficiently big enough to use online communications exclusively. World Wide Web usage is growing, but it still needs more time to mature. Most communicators compare the household penetration to that of cable television. Cable took more than twenty years to become a viable advertising vehicle, and marketers believe that Web usage will outstrip the acceptance levels of cable television.
The textbook’s writting style stresses a clear, concise, and interesting treatment of electronic marketing and electronic commerce subjects, and up-to-date examples and situation vignettes are employed abundantly in every chapter. The organization of the material within each chapter follows a critical thinking path of who, what, when, why, and how in developing the marketing processes. This direct and repetitive approach keeps the processes on target. In the narrative text, frequent references are made to the marketing or communications cycle for products and services. To avoid a horrendous repetition of these two elements, many times the text will read “products,” with no restatement of the equal marketing position of services. Therefore, when products are being discussed, the student should read the reference as “products and services” unless otherwise disclaimed.
Electronic Marketing is divided into four parts, organized according to the planning and implementation from concept to special topics of the marketing process. The first part, “The Concepts of Electronic Marketing,” explains the foundations of online research and marketing and draws parallels to the stages of the traditional marketing process (situation analysis, marketing planning, and marketing implementation). The second part, “Integrating Electronic Marketing Resources,” develops the substituting electronic tool for the traditional tool and provides examples of the online execution. Section three, “Implementing the Commerce Concept,” covers the actual activities of establishing and promoting a virtual storefront with attention given to on¬going responsibilities of the e-marketer and Web master. The fourth part, “Special Topics,” addresses the unique opportunities that the Web presents such as a direct business-to business channel, international e-commerce, the ethics of e-marketing, and the commerce-expanding possibilities in the future of electronic marketing. The textbook includes appendices of an outline for creating an online marketing and pro¬motional program, geo-demographic data analysis, a list of current electronic market¬ing resources and Web addresses, and a survey format for interviewing businesses that are online.
One last comment about Web navigation: Understand that Web addresses con¬tinually change and sometimes are abandoned by their creators. While the authors have diligently tried to include current and active Web site addresses by publication time, some addresses may have changed or have been deleted by the information source. Sometimes a posted notice on the Web page you have been routed to may be included informing the viewer of changes; sometimes this new address is a hyperlink to an active location. In these cases, follow the hyperlink to see if your desired infor¬mation resides on that site, or double-check the address that you originally typed.
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