Strengths and Weaknesses of an E Marketing - Coursework Example

Topic: E-Marketing (The strengths and weaknesses of E-Advertising) Lecturer: Presentation: Introduction E-advertising is a process through which business organizations advertise their products through the internet (Hanson, 2000). It is a form of advertising which has experienced growth due to the fact that the world is becoming a digital village whereby people from all over the world are able to communicate and do business in real time without necessarily having to meet in person. In the recent developments, information Technology has created an avenue for competition between businesses on the wide market which is facilitated by online shopping (Hanson, 2000). This essay is a critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of E-marketing. Strengths and Weaknesses of E-Marketing With the current developments in the Information Technology sector, it has become possible for businesses and organizations to conduct their businesses over the internet, a process that can be referred to as E-commerce (Hanson, 2000). This is facilitated by the accessibility of personal computers among the world’s population with internet connection which interfaces the suppliers with their customers through interactive websites, which enables the customers to make orders as well as to compare and to contrast the services offered by different vendors. Through their websites, the businesses are able to generate attention through the use of graphics that depict the true nature of the businesses for example by including photographs of the business premises, some of the products sold as well as the management teams among other important aspects of the business which may be helpful in building confidence in the buyers on the services offered (Reynolds, 2004). These help to create a picture on the customer’s mind on the credibility of the business, reason being that photographs communicate more on the image of the organization. Creating awareness is the main importance of advertising (Haegele, 2001). Through the internet, this goal has been achieved by businesses, which have exploited the global market at a cheaper price than the other media of advertising such as the yellow pages, through the mass media i.e. news papers and radio as well as Television etc. It is estimated that the price of creating a website is cheaper than the price of advertising on the yellow pages thus making it affordable to all types of businesses (Brown, 2006). With thousands of potential customers around the world using the internet for other purposes such as research, sending and receiving e-mails as well as communicating through chat rooms and entertainment, internet advertising offers the best platform for businesses to achieve their marketing objectives through the use of various internet tools such as Google, which are visited regularly by internet users. Internet advertising also has an added advantage over other media due to the fact that it offers immediate response mechanisms both for the customers and the businesses (Sigh, 2004). The process of inquiring about a product is quick and the response is just a click away. This encourages more and more people to search for products on the internet especially where time is of essence. This is as opposed to advertisements which are placed on the print media which does not offer any kind of response unless the interested customer visits the business premises in order to get more information on the products (Bayne, 2002). In the end, the customer may lose interest due to the expenses which may be incurred in the process and also due to the lack of quality information in the print advertisements, which makes them ambiguous. Ambiguity arises due to the little information contained in these advertisements as a result of the need to economize on expenses which are charged according to the amount of words contained in the advert. Internet advertising also makes use of e-mails whereby the business generates a database of emails for all the potential customers who may request frequent updates from the businesses for example concerning new products and services offered (Priore, 2000). This is beneficial in that the information sent reaches the intended customers only thereby reducing the chances of disturbing uninterested persons. Through this, customers are able to get information regularly concerning products which are of interest to them and be able to communicate promptly with the suppliers by replying to the emails. This marketing strategy is also beneficial to the marketers as they are able to evaluate customers’ response by tracking the sent emails and their replies so as to know whether the marketing campaign is successful, which can be achieved within a short time. By doing so, the business can decide on whether to change the marketing strategy based on the responses as well as whether to continue with the system unlike in other marketing strategies such as the use of simplex communication such as through the radio and Television, which does not offer a platform for feedback and evaluation of response (Priore, 2000). However, this form of advertising involving emails has various weaknesses based on the fact that most of the e-mails received by internet users contain approximately 90% spam (Zimmerman, 2008). As such, the customers may not be able to access the genuine mails due to the high number of e-mails in their inbox, which may be difficult as well as time consuming to sort them. In the end, they may be compelled to delete all of them thereby making the process ineffective. The main reason for advertising is to create curiosity among the audience such that they feel the urge to know more about the products as well as to convince them to buy from your business (Bayne, 2002). While at it, there must be a motivation factor necessary in encouraging the potential buyers to listen and provide audience to the content of your advertisement. Unlike the traditional methods of advertising, which may include and not limited to organizing road shows, providing free gifts after buying a certain amount of the product etc, e-advertising utilizes various options for capturing such attention without necessarily spending a lot on people who may not even be interested in the products (Bayne, 2002). It is true to say that most of the internet users spend a lot of time on the internet downloading music and freeware such as games and other soft wares, practices which are addictive. As such, it would be easier to capture their attention by designing a website which has the capacity to offer such services so as to make sure that they spend a satisfying amount of time going through the contents. The advantage with internet marketing is that various companies and organizations have connected their computers to the internet and this makes it possible for employees to access information on the web without necessarily paying for the services, which are paid for by the employer (Zimmerman, 2008). As such, they have the capability of spending many hours looking for information without worrying about paying any charges thereby promoting the internet marketers. The use of pop-up advertisement has also proven to be a functional mode of creating awareness on the high population that uses the internet (Sigh, 2004). It functions by displaying a message concerning a certain product every time a person opens a new web page, though in most cases this has been classified as spyware or adware. A pop-up advert occurs in a way that captures the attention of the user, who is compelled to read the contents before progressing to read the contents of the web page especially due to the surprise factor. However, this mode of advertising can be annoying to the users especially if it occurs in excess (Sigh, 2004). The person viewing the page may result to closing the entire page thereby failing to get the information or he may be forced to install programs to block the pop-ups (Digital Flow Software, 2009). As a solution to the negative perception that users have on the pop-up adverts, pop-under adverts were developed, which are less provocative based on the fact that they are not displayed on the top of the web page like the pop-ups did but instead, they are displayed behind the active web page (Sigh, 2004). However, pop-under adverts do not have the surprise factor and therefore may not be effective in achieving the desired results as compared to the pop-up windows. There is a possibility of the user closing the entire browser window or ignoring the advert after he is through with what he was interested in. Even though these two forms of e-advertising are known to produce results, most of the internet users are wary of them due to the use of the same tactics by rogue programmers while designing computer viruses, which are displayed on the screen in the same manner awaiting user’s response so that they can attack the computer (Sigh, 2004). As such, web browsers being developed enable the users to prevent such events from occurring thereby denying the marketers the chance to fully exploit the effectiveness of such adverts. The evolution of technology especially in the mobile telephony has also created an opportunity for marketers to exploit (Herzog, 2008). Whereas personal computers are best suited for the task, mobile telephones in the current generation are capable of providing internet access. As such, the marketers are capable of capturing the attention of the mobile phone owners wherever they may be due to their portability. Even though it may not be easy to display a lot of information through the mobile phone’s tiny screen, the marketers use the equipment as a tool for alerting the customers on new mails thus making them curious to login to their email accounts at the nearest location so as to read the full contents of the mails (Zimmerman, 2008). However, most of the mobile phones in the market do not support a lot of applications as compared to the desktop and other larger computers and also have a low processing speed, which may make them a bit ineffective. On the other hand, experts are in the process of developing mobile phones which are more suited to these tasks and which have the capacity to carry out operations relative to those carried out by the larger computer machines (Herzog, 2008). As such, marketers will be able to fully utilize the mobility of these equipments. However, e-advertising has various weaknesses as compared to the traditional methods. These are for example lack of privacy on the operations of the business. This is due to the fact that for it to be successful, the advertisements on the websites should be detailed with information concerning the products being sold as well as the terms of acquiring the same. This information can be used by competitors as a basis for improving their services and making them better then those offered by your business thereby resulting to customers opting to shift their interests to the other business (Bayne, 2002). There is also the possibility of capturing no attention from customers due to the lack of talent in the person designing the website, which may end up producing irritating pop-ups and pop-under windows that may discourage customers from reading the contents. Conclusion With the invention of internet technology, the mode of conducting business has gradually changed from the traditional methods to the more sophisticated and efficient online method. Through the internet, a business is capable of capturing global markets through e-advertising, which capitalizes on the connectivity that has made the world to become a one digital village. The traditional forms of advertising such as the simplex media for example radio and television as well as newspapers has over time lacked the capacity to reach the target groups due to the fact that they have almost become obsolete as a form of delivering news due to the rising number of websites that deliver the same services at cheaper rates. Marketers have realized this potential and as a result, they have capitalized more on the internet to serve as their medium for advertising. E-advertising is advantageous in that it helps the business to acquire global market due to the fact that once the information is displayed on the website, it can be accessed from any part of the world as opposed to other media which are costly and diverse thereby requiring the marketer to place the adverts on each and every media e.g. in all television stations or in all the newspapers. Through e-advertising, a business is capable of reaching its customers through emails, which enhance feedback and reporting by enabling the customers to reply and comment on the services offered. Bibliography 1. Bayne, K. (2002) The Internet Marketing Plan: A Practical Handbook for Creating, Implementing and Assessing Your Online Presence, John Wiley & Sons Inc. 2. Brown, B. (2006) How to Use the Internet to Advertise, Promote and Market Your Business or Website with Little or No Money, Atlantic Publishing Company. 3. Digital Flow Software, (2009) DHTML Popup Examples,[Online Image] Available at (Accessed: 20th January 2010). 4. Haegele, K. (2001) E-advertising and E-marketing: Online Opportunities (Library of E-Commerce and Internet Careers), Rosen Publishing Group. 5. Hanson, W. (2000) Principles of Internet Marketing, South-Western College Pub. 6. Herzog, J. (2008) Mobile Advertising: Supercharge Your Brand in the Exploding Wireless Market, Wiley. 7. Priore, A. (2000) Email Marketing, John Wiley. 8. Reynolds, J. (2004) The Complete E-Commerce Book: Design, Build & Maintain a Successful Web-based Business, CMP. 9. Sigh, S. (2004) Web Advertising & Online Marketing Technologies & Strategies for E Marketing, Deep & Deep Publications. 10. Zimmerman, J. (2008) Web Marketing for Dummies, for Dummies. Read More