Marketing and
the Internet
Internet is a vast public web of computer networks
that connects users of all types around the world to each other and to a large
information repository
Online Marketing
Domains
• Business to consumer (B2C)
• Business to business (B2B)
• Consumer to consumer (C2C)
• Consumer to business (C2B)
Business to consumer (B2C) involves selling goods
and services online to final consumers
Business to business (B2B) involves selling goods
and services, providing information online to businesses, and building customer
relationships
Consumer to consumer (C2C) occurs on the Web between
interested parties over a wide range of products and subjects
• Blogs
• Offer a fresh, original, and inexpensive way to
reach fragmented audiences
• Difficult to control
Consumer to business (C2B) involves consumers
communicating with companies to send suggestions and questions via company Web
sites
Types of Online
Marketers
• Click-only marketers
• Click-and-mortar marketers
Click-only
marketers operate only online without any brick and mortar presence
• E-tailors
• Search engines and portals
• Shopping or price comparison sites
• Internet service providers (ISP)
• Transaction sites
• Content sites
E-tailers are
dot coms that sell products and services directly to final buyers via the
Internet
• Amazon
• Expedia
Search engines
and portals are ports of entry to the Internet
• Yahoo!
• Google
Internet service
providers (ISP) provide Internet connections for a fee
• AOL
• Earthlink
Shopping or
price comparison sites provide product and price comparison information
• Yahoo! shopping
Transaction
sites take commissions for transactions on their sites
• eBay
Content sites
provide financial, news, research, and other information
• New York Times.com
• ESPN.com
Click-and-mortar
companies are brick-and-mortar companies with an online presence
Advantages of click and mortar companies include:
• Known and trusted brand names
• Strong financial resources
• Large customer bases
• Industry knowledge
• Reputation
• Strong supplier relationships
• More options for customers
Setting Up an
Online Presence
Creating a Web site requires designing an attractive
site and developing ways to get consumers to visit the site, remain on the
site, and return to the site
Types of sites
• Corporate Web site
• Marketing Web site
Corporate Web
site is designed to build customer goodwill and to supplement other channels,
rather than to sell the company’s products directly to:
• Provide information
• Create excitement
• Build relationships
Marketing Web
site is designed to engage consumers in interaction that will move them closer
to a direct purchase or other marketing outcome
Designing
Effective Web Sites
To attract visitors, companies must:
• Promote in offline promotion and online links
• Create value and excitement
• Constantly update the site
• Make the site useful
The seven Cs of
effective Web site design
1. Context
2. Content
3. Community
4. Customization
5. Communication
6. Connection
7. Commerce
Context is the site’s layout
Content is the site’s pictures, sound, and video
Community is the site’s means to enable user-to-user
communication
Customization is the site’s ability to tailor itself
to different users or to allow users to personalize the site
Communication is the way the site enables
user-to-user, user-to-site, or two-way communication
Connection is the degree that the site is lined to
other sites
Commerce is the site’s capabilities to enable
commercial transactions
The eighth C
To keep customers coming back, the site needs to
constantly change
Placing Ads and
Promotions Online
Forms of online advertising
• Display ads
• Search-related ads
• Online classifieds
Display ads
• Banners are banner-shaped ads found on a Web site
• Interstitials are ads that appear between screen
changes
• Pop-ups are ads that suddenly appear in a new window
in front of the window being viewed
• Rich media ads incorporate animation, video, sound,
and interactivity
Search-related ads are ads in which text-based ads
and links appear alongside search engine results on sites such as Google and
Yahoo! and are effective in linking consumers to other forms of online
promotion
Other forms of online promotion include:
• Content sponsorships
• Alliances
• Affiliate programs
• Viral advertising
Content sponsorships provide companies with name
exposure through the sponsorship of special content such as news or financial
information
Alliances and affiliate programs are relationships
where online companies promote each other
Viral marketing is the Internet version of
word-of-mouth marketing and involves the creation of a Web site, an e-mail
message, or another marketing event that customers pass along to friends
The Future of
Online Advertising
Online advertising provides a useful purpose as a
supplement to other marketing efforts and is playing an increasingly important
role in the marketing mix
Creating or
Participating in Web Communities
Web communities allow members to congregate online
and exchange views on issues of common interest
• iVillage.com
• MyFamily.com
Using E-mail
Marketers are developing enriched messages that
include animation, interactivity, and personal messages with streaming audio
and video to compete with the cluttered e-mail environment