Overview - What is Marketing?

Marketing is integrated into many different parts of a companies business plan. Think about how the Internet and new forms of communication are changing the way companies do business. The mind map below illustrates how phases of marketing depend on the Internet. Consider how the Internet has changed business strategies. For example, many consumers, when looking for information about a product, go to the Internet to search for information about products, where to buy them and how to purchase them.

Marketing is all of this and much more.

The Internet has and will be changing each phase of marketing. It has reached into every area of advertising. Many ads, whether print or TV, now end by giving a domain name or web address to which the viewer can refer for more information. The Internet has changed the face of about customer service. Most banks want customers to do their banking from a web site or ATM without coming into the bank building.

Overview - What is Marketing?

Definition of marketing
Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution (4 Ps) of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges (with customers) that satisfy individual and organizational objectives. This is a quote from: http://www.udel.edu/alex/chapt1.html

Analysis - how the Internet fits into marketing. Here's some info from marketing web site. This how they categorize web sites.

Process of planning - It is essential for companies to plan data. In fact, you can say that the Internet is all about data - data which can be very precise. For example, through tracking software companies can find out who is visiting their web site. Also, there are traditional rating systems that are being used on the Internet today. The Nielsen rating system which was the traditional rating system for TV is now rating the Internet. http://en-us.nielsen.com/

Pricing - Many consumers today use the Internet to compare prices, especially big ticket items such as cars, even used cars. The Kelly Blue Book is a traditional pricing book for used cars. Now it is on the Internet. http://www.kbb.com/

Promotion - Many companies use their web sites for information, but some use web sites for contests and other promotions. Check out Pepsi.com to see how this firm uses contests and games for promotion.

Distribution - Internet is being used for distribution of some products. Much software purchased today is downloaded from the Internet. Disks are rarely sent out. The way distribution is being used is through tracking. Consumers may find answers to questions such as "Where is the product I purchased?" or "When will it arrive?" on the Internet. Check out Fedex.com you can find where packages are in the distribution of products.

Overview - What is Marketing?

How marketing fits into operations of a company within most companies marketing is an integrated process. All avenues of a business from research, production, advertising, packaging, and sales, need to work toward a common marketing goal. The Internet is changing the way these employees work together, exchange information and gather data. Digital Media is a major factor involved in marketing. People who work in the digital media; programmers, designers, artists, writers, etc. all need to work with the marketing staff within a company to develop appropriate material for goals. Students who have studied digital media often take jobs in marketing where they can use their knowledge of art, interface design, programming, navigation, and business skills to develop a cohesive marketing plan. This includes a universal look and feel in the packaging of products and advertising, and the design of the web site.

Text from the book Internet Marketing, Author ©Barbara Cox. This is how this book categorize web sites.

The Basics

The tremendous variety of approaches to marketing on the Internet makes clear cut categorization difficult. Most Web sites have multiple goals and a number of strategies for reaching them. They have unique looks and operate differently. Nonetheless, most business-oriented Web sites fit roughly (not Neatly) into one of four broad groups, although the "fits" are more a matter of emphasis than strict conformity to a particular category.

1. Company or corporate identity sites. These sites, often expansions of the familiar "capability brochures" are usually built for the stakeholders- the employees and investors - in the business. They promote their marketing positioning and their own philosophy, size, history, and other characteristics to attract and retain quality management, consistent workers, dedicated investors, and capable, knowledgeable, through, or inspirational leadership.

2. Product or service information sites. Web pages and Web sites that present information about products and services also work to enhance positioning or increase public awareness. The primary purpose of these sites is not direct sales; such sites are more similar to general advertising than to direct response marketing.

3. Transaction-oriented sites. Millions of Web sites and Web pages sell the wares and services of the world to other businesses and to consumers. They may allow Web visitors to use an existing business account, charge to a credit card, use an online payment service, or place an order for later billing-but sell they do. Many are immediately recognizable as purveyors of something-r-other, with the site's pages devoted to the product's features, benefits, and pricing. Other sites combine an educational or informational mission with direct selling, such as an art museum site with pages of art history as well as means for visitors to make donations, reserve places in a museum tour, or make purchases form the gift shop.

4. Relationship-building sites. Creating, maintaining, and enhancing long term relationships with customers and clients, including employees and investors, requires some action or interaction beyond a single sale. Working to ensure that clients are satisfied committed to a particular product line, service, or company, requires repeated-or continous-communication. Some sites emphasize this communication, working to keep clients informed and providing ways for those clients to communicate their thoughts, opinions, and questions to the marketing, sales, customer service,and/or management representatives of the site's owner. Many technical help sites fall into this category.

Direct selling on the Internet is also popularly categorized as business-to-business (B2B), or consumer-to-consumer (C2C) selling.

Overview - What is Marketing?

Emotional Branding, Author - Marc Gobe
ISBN - 1-58115-078-4

www.emotionalbranding.com

This is an excellent book on Internet marketing containing much data and information.

Gonzo Marketing, Author - Christopher Locke
ISBN - 0-7382-0408-0

This book discusses the future of marketing on the Internet. An excellent book.

Following is an excerpt from Emotional Branding:

"Women are arriving online with incredible force. They currently make up 48 percent of the online population, and it is predicted that they will outnumber men by 2002. Because they handle 80 percent of all purchase decisions, obviously they quickly surpass male online spending as well, Netsmart found that 53 percent of women made an online purchase in 1999, up from 33 percent in 1998. Women’s online behavior and spending vary greatly from men’s. Here is a look at what motivates women online.

Women’s primary online activities are:

• Gathering information: (business / career/ family/ shopping/ health/ travel/ computer)
• Sending and receiving e-mail
• Chatting

While a large number of women do go online for entertainment and pleasure, women are becoming increasingly dependent on the Internet to save time. Netsmart found that 88 percent of women say that the Internet simplifies their lives.
A significant difference between men and women online is that women tend to go online for a specific purpose and men are more likely to be surfers on browsers. This means that user-friendly, intuitive design is key as well as tailoring sites toward convenience. Contests or helpful tips are more valuable to women than games.
What we already know about women as consumers translates well to the Web.

Respect: Women use the Web to conduct thorough research of products services, and companies in order to make highly informed decisions. An interactive survey by Northstar Interactive demonstrates that for women the Web has surpassed newspaper, television, radio, and even their friends as a source of buying information; 67 percent use the Internet, 55 percent friends, 44 percent newspaper, 27 percent television, and 20 percent radio.

Individuality: Women are using the Web to reinforce their sense of themselves as multidimensional people. They enjoy the power the Web gives them to expand their horizons in all the roles they play. They use the Web to do business and personal research and to explore current events, fashions, travel, and entertaining escape sites.

Stress relief: The major reason women shop online is convenience. Twenty-four-hour availability means that midnight shopping after the busy day is over is real, viable alternative. Women also find the Web to be a great resource for a little relaxation and self-gratification. Ninety-six percent of the women in the Netsmart survey found the web to be entertaining and pleasurable.

Connection: Content sites such as Oxygen, Women.com, and iVillage are increasingly popular with women. These sites have become successful by offering free, easy to navigate information and content that is highly relevant to women in a way that fosters a sense of community. They also offer resources such as free e-mail, weather, and stock quotes.

Relationship: Women use the Web to help themselves and their families. Eighty-three percent of the women interviewed in an online study by Netsmart said that the Web helped them to help their children. (69 percent said they use it to help their children with homework)"

Overview - What is Marketing?

Analysis of some web site and how companies are using the Internet to market their products and services.

Ticketmaster.com - This company offers tickets to consumers wanting to attend shows or sporting events. The traditional way tickets were sold was over the phone. Today many people go to a web site to purchase tickets. On a web site you can search for all shows, price, locations, type of music. It is much more informative than traditional ways of marketing on radio or in music stores.

Nissandriven.com - All car companies have web sites where you can search for makes of cars, prices, locations of dealers, etc. Before the existence of Internet, a potential buyer had to find dealer then make a personal trip to the dealership to obtain a catalog to get details about a car. Now the whole process can take place in the comfort of the buyer's own home or office.

Overview - What is Marketing?

Ways companies are marketing on the Internet. Most people know the WWW part of the Internet, but there are many others ways the Internet is being used for marketing. What companies are looking at is a Marketing in many different areas in the Internet.

Web 2.0 way. Getting you products and services in as many places as you can.

1. Social Bookmarking - What is Social Bookmarking
2. Email Marketing - Yes I know you hate spam.
3. Advertising on web site
4. Ads placed in videos - search pepsi on youtube.com

Overview - What is Marketing? -

Assignment 1 - Analysis of companies marketing plan.

Due - Jan 8

Things to write about, audience "who is web site develop for", is it informational or promotional, What data are they gathering from web site. Remember the things written above.

Look at the categories above. For example - I choose the www.pepis.com web site to write about in this lesson. By analysis the web site I came to the conclusion that the main marketing plan for there web site was promotion and brand Identity. There is no detail data about their products, no info about how many calories is in a pepis. The web site is an extension of there TV and other advertising venues.

Wow this is Really Fun. Try This. Maybe write about how companies marketing might have changed over the years. Check out the web site www.archive.org , type in a web address in the way back machine, Like I used pepis.com in my example. and you can write how the marketing has changed.

Heres a good example from a previous student assignment -

Online Internet Marketing Class Assignment 1

The website I have chosen to analyze is http://www.hansens.com which is Hansen's official web site. This company caught my attention because of the explosive growth it has realized for many of its investors. Hansen's prides itself in providing all natural, great tasting beverages. I was impressed with there web site, it appears to be both a promotional web site as well as a web site for distribution and transactions. First, it promotes the Hansen's name and product. The web site tells the Hansen's story and how it came to be. It also gives the company's mission statement of superior quality, healthy, and natural beverages. Hansen's commits itself to excellence. This site also seems to fall into the category of a Relationship-building site. The Hansen's web site maintains respect for the individuals and uncompromising Integrity. It promotes that it wants to continue to provide high quality products to its customers. The site also gives a Investor Relations section as well as a contact section for anyone to contact the company. The site also told of the news of the products and company as well as its events and various sponsorships. The web site also promotes it's product. It seems that most of its various soda's, juices, energy drinks, tea's and more are displayed. It provides information for each of its product. However, it did not seem to give down to the detail information of each drink. For example, some drinks would say "no sugar added", but would not tell the calorie content or other additives of the drink. I would think that these types of things would be important to a dieter or a person with particular health related needs. Even in the website's online E-Store section where you can buy the product the descriptions did not contain down to the detail information. Being a consumer, I would find this to be a mistake since the company is promoting health products, so I would think they the descriptions should contain ingredients for the health conscience audience.

The web site is also a transaction-oriented site. It allows you to purchase its product directly on its site. However I found that with some of the products that I have purchased in the past, they were actually cheaper at the stores than on the official Hansen web site. I found that to be odd. You would think they would want as many customers to purchase directly from them than through a third party. So in all, the web site seems to be a business-to-consumer site as well as a product information site. It is a transaction-oriented site for consumers, but I don't see it as a business-to-business web site because I don't see where a company is allowed to buy wholesale on the site. I thought the pictures and colors where dazzling. It was a catchy web site without a whole lot of complication. I really liked that about it. Some web sites are just so complicated that they probably lose customers who are not computer savey.