Transcript Chapter 10
Electronic Marketing Chapter 10 Using the Internet Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Just What Can You Get from the World Wide Web? • The marketer should be aware of the content available from the Web • Among high-tech companies, the content is very informational, stressing technical support and downloading capabilities • If the firm sells commodities such as finished hardware, the content of the site is informational with reassurance toward the inventory, availability, delivery, quality and price Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Just What Can You Get from the World Wide Web? One of the best efforts to examine a different retailer’s offerings is to look at a competitor’s Web page, which might include: • Search products • Customer service • A formal corporate presentation • Virtual shopping cart • A newsroom, for press releases and news articles • Store locator • Career opportunities • Hyperlinks to Featured Items • Color photography of popular merchandise Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Personal Use of the Web • Marketers are wise to understand the reasons for purchasers’ personally using the Web – Convenience (82%) – Saving time (74%) – Availability of vendor information (73%) – Female users valued the notion of no pressure from salespeople (64%) slightly over vendor information (63%) – Males and females both ranked convenience first – Personal shopping services (16%) Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Personal Use of the Web • Another “personal” aspect was that of being able to personalize the home page to retrieve information from specific Web resources • This selectivity of information is also available on user friendly search engine portals such as Yahoo! and Excite – The most popular selections are: • Weather • Travel • Sports • Stocks • News Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Consumer Habits Are Being Formed • Consumers are welcoming the power and variety of the Web’s treasury of information, and users are adapting their daily activities to accommodate their online practices • Being cognizant of the search engine of choice is an important factor for the marketer to know for two reasons – The software developer can create sites designed to the “lowest common denominator” that most persons have the ability to access and the site’s appearance is attractive without losing copy or graphics because of inconsistency among browsers – The second critical decision concerns search engine popularity; which are the most used such engines that the marketer should register with? Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Consumer Habits Are Being Formed • Can the marketer know too much about her market’s wants, needs, expectations, or preferences? – Knowing the customer’s constraints (as well as the customer’s plateau of patience or frustration) is most valuable in “giving the customer what she wants.” – Knowing search habits is essential to building a responsive, content-laden, and interactive Web site that draws the shopper to the merchandise without confusing the e-commerce experience – Consider the “hit ratio,” an informal measure of the number of searches that produce successful results Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Consumer Habits Are Being Formed • Besides understanding how your markets gather information, it is necessary to try to learn what they do with this information – Two of the best resources of customer opinions: • Listening to consumers expressing their opinions about product experiences, in both positive and negative usage • Voicing what product features are missing from the marketplace – GoogleGroups (http://groups.google.com/), is the home of hundreds of discussions about various topics – The marketer can start her own discussion group, monitor consumer comments, and interject written opinions about her products Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Browsers: Specialty among Equals • While browser manufacturers promise equal performance in retrieving information, some browsers handle searches differently • Web surfers are turning to Meta search sites that “broadcast” the search request to numerous search engines to create one list of hits • Searching the Web can be quite sophisticated if the surfer uses the proper search strategy – Boolean searches are created using operators that tell the search engine what terms must be in the search string Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo The Culture of the Internet • It is odd that the Internet is considered for its commercial purpose because its origin was far from that • The Internet was born of academic research and communications, a culture of freely sharing and noncommercial usage flourished among the gatekeepers of the Net Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo The Culture of the Internet • The academic intention of the Internet came to be viewed differently with the introduction of color, graphics, and augmented text in 1993; this enhanced research vehicle became an attractive and persuasive commercial medium as the elements matured, and more people, other than researchers and educators, discovered the boundless holdings • In following the traditions of the Internet, the marketer should try to extend this cultural style and perceptiveness to the marketer’s site Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo The Culture of the Internet • The ideal business on the Internet would build a loyal audience by providing an attractive environment in which users could discuss matters of common interest with one another and with experts • Depending on the business model, the marketer could aim to build a global virtual community of people with common interests, or forge closer ties with your local, physical community Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Learning Proper Netiquette • Simply, “Netiquette” is Internet etiquette, the informal rules of behavior of the Internet • Organizations develop their own “Acceptable Use Policies” (AUPs), a set of rules specifically for an organization’s network Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Learning Proper Netiquette • Netiquette guidelines for e-mail, mailing lists, and Usenet newsgroups – Use normal upper and lower case letters. Avoid using all capital letters; this is known as “shouting” and is generally discouraged. – Careful use of “emoticons” can help to get your emotional point across clearly • Smile (humor, happiness, encouragement) • Frown (sad, disapproval) • Wink (kidding, joking) Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Learning Proper Netiquette • Netiquette guidelines for e-mail, mailing lists, and Usenet newsgroups continued… – Avoid “flaming” (inflammatory or antagonistic criticism) or sending insulting, abusive, or threatening remarks – Remember that e-mail is not private – When replying to a newsgroup posting, be sure to include the portion of the original message that you are responding to Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Learning Proper Netiquette • Netiquette guidelines for e-mail, mailing lists, and Usenet newsgroups continued… – Always identify yourself and keep messages as brief and to the point as possible – Avoid “spamming” – When sending or posting to multiple mail lists or newsgroups, indicate that you have done so Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Learning Proper Netiquette • Telnet Netiquette has a set of unwritten rules that need to be followed – Do not stay on a terminal longer than necessary – “Help” pages are provided at a Telnet site, download them to your terminal and read them after logging off Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Learning Proper Netiquette • File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Netiquette is important to understand as much of the problems it can cause can slow down the network – Try not to download large files (larger than one megabyte) until after business hours – Use the time zone that applies to the FTP server that you are accessing, not your local time – Users are responsible for checking copyright or licensing agreements for the files that they download – If downloading shareware, be sure to pay the appropriate fees Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e 3/31/2016 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo Learning Proper Netiquette • Messages are so sterile in black and white text displayed on a flat unemotional monitor. To add some animation and some unspoken depth to messages and conversation, “emoticons” or “smileys” found their way into online dialog :> smile Electronic Marketing: Integrating Electronic Resources into the Marketing Process, 2e :| frown 3/31/2016 ;> wink 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo