Services Over the Internet - Essay Example

1.0 Introduction Internet marketing may be construed to simply refer to the marketing of goods and/or services over the internet. Ever since the discovery of the worldwide web, there has been a shift towards internet marketing because of a myriad of reasons. First, the internet offers a low cost marketing option as compared to other options. Secondly, the internet is able to reach a wider audience as compared to the other offline forms of marketing. Finally, the internet is a unique medium of marketing because of the interactive nature and thus it is able to not only provide instant responses but also elicit instant responses from clients and audience in general. Furthermore, the hastily embrace of internet has been as a result of the alleged wider scope of the internet marketing. The scope is wider because it involves both digital media such as e-mail and the wireless media. It is also important to note the fact that internet marketing also involves management of customer data which is digital and also an electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) system. In short, the internet has been able to provide most workable solutions that have been lacking in other forms of marketing for a very long time and thus the popularity of internet marketing is not coincidental. Internet marketing is not only able to foster brand identity but also manages to enact both brand personalization and brand commitment. A number of organisations in various industries have been able to invest in internet marketing because of its viability. This paper seeks to illustrate the effectiveness of internet marketing by comparing the website of two airlines thus trying to highlight aspects of internet marketing, especially the efficiency of the websites in maintaining traffic, fostering brand strength, brand commitment and at the same time getting results. 2.0 Internet Marketing Internet marketing continues to be popular because it combines the dual potential of internet for marketing; the creativity and technical aspects. These two greatly enhance the aspects of marketing such as the development of design, advertisement and sale. Internet marketing engages the customers through various stages such as SEM (search engine marketing), Banner adverts within various popular websites such as face book, marketing via e-mail, SEO (search engine optimization) and web 2.0 strategies. These various stages of customer engagement afford a wider audience and have a scope component as well. When one talks of internet marketing, a business model within which the internet marketing is conducted is implied. Internet marketing is related to a number of business models. Some of these models include e-commerce, affiliate marketing and publishing among others. Most of these models are based on the particular needs of both the individual customer and needs of the company or organisation that launches the internet marketing campaign. As far as the e-commerce model is concerned (model that is embraced by most organisations that carry out internet marketing) the goods and/or services are sold straight to the customers or other business organisations without going through intermediaries. This approach is able to afford the internet marketing a one-to-one approach. In this one-to-one internet marketing approach, the targeted consumer is usually browsing alone and thus the advertisement message is able to reach him/her personally. This approach is mostly used along with what is popularly known as search marketing. Search marketing is an internet marketing scenario in which the advertisements are based on the search keywords that are entered by the person browsing the internet (Hanson, 1999: pp245-255). 2.1 Advantages of Internet Marketing Internet marketing is relatively cheaper as compared to other offline media used for marketing. The cost effectiveness is measured in terms of the cost to target audience ratio. Actually, at a lower cost, internet marketing is able to reach a wider audience than the other offline marketing would achieve at a similar cost. In marketing, statistics are very important to help track the efficiency of the marketing approaches used in a bid to establish their returns on investment. Based on this, internet marketing remains popular because of its ability to furnish the advertising organisations with features that enable the collections of accurate statistics at no additional cost or at a cheaper cost if any. Internet, marketing is easier to track for efficiency more than the other offline marketing media and as such the advertiser is able to assume a greater degree of accountability. The accountability is afforded through the use of web analytics. 2.2 Internet Branding Internet branding should be continuous and linked to the offline branding strategies. If the company's internet brand is not in tandem with the overall company's branding strategy, then this underscores the efficiency of the internet branding attempts (Haig, 2003: pp255-259). With the growing popularity of the internet and as such internet marketing, a company is rated in terms of the brand they afford to put across. If two companies are offering the same services such as British Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airlines, then one may be rated better than the other if its online brand experience is worthwhile. This experience is basically picked by the consumer and may be passed on to his/her friends who will also come back to the company. Online brand can therefore be strengthened through a number of ways. Some of these ways include but are not limited to: PPC campaigns, link baiting, campaigns that use social networking and online press releases. Such features, when present in a company's website, they are likely to create a better brand experience for the consumer. Furthermore, a company may use YouTube in its bid to strengthen its brand among other internet branding methods which can be used to realize both increased brand exposure and consistency (Ries & Ries, 2000: pp123-128). 3.0 Airlines and Internet Marketing It is common knowledge that the travel industry is a global multi-billion dollar industry which is rapidly growing at an unbelievable rate. As the growth rate increases, competition stiffens and it is the responsibility of the industry players to differentiate or else be bundled out of business. The differentiation is seen when airlines venture into internet marketing. Nowadays, you do not need to move to the airline offices to book flights; flights can be booked in the comfort of your office or home by a click of a button. Now that internet marketing is rapidly evolving as well, the airlines are hard pressed once again to differentiate their websites to enable easier achievement of internet marketing objectives. We shall consider the websites of British Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airlines and offer an in-depth analysis of these websites in the light of internet marketing concepts and marketing concepts in general. These websites are as well compared to show which of the two is more likely to achieve the internet marketing objectives more than the other. 4.0 British Airlines Vs Virgin Atlantic Airlines 4.1 British Airlines Website 4.1.1 Purpose of the Site and Web Business Model The British Airlines website is aimed at both advertisements and sales. The website advertises its services of flights, car hires, hotels etc. It also goes ahead to show the offers as a way of attracting the customers. As far as sales are concerned, the website enables car hiring, flight ticketing and even hotel booking. These sales are almost all the time connected to one another. For instance, if one is flying from UK to an African country, then this customer is going to require a hotel room, a rental car (not always as most prefer tour guides) and a flight ticket of course. The moment the website opens, it is clear that it belongs to an airline and it simply welcomes you. The web business model used in this website is the e-commerce model. This is because it uses search marketing (an internet marketing scenario in which the advertisements are based on the search keywords that are entered by the person browsing the internet). It also embraces a one-on-one approach which is a distinctive feature of e-commerce. 4.1.2 Target Market The website targets customers in US and its backyard, UK. It is also apparent that the website also targets customers from Spain, Germany, France and Italy. This is evident because of the use of Espanola, German, French and Italian languages in its welcome note and the respective sites written in these languages. It also targets all people from its destination points. The destinations as listed in the website are some countries from Africa, Caribbean, Central Asia, Europe, Far East and Australia, Middle East, North Africa, North America, South America, United Kingdom and Ireland. Therefore, all these people in the destination countries are targeted by the website or this internet marketing attempt. 4.1.3 Online Brand, Brand Personalization and Brand Commitment The website tries to build a brand. The brand in this case is a British Airways which offers among other services; car rentals, air flights, hotel bookings, sightseeing, airport parking, travel insurance, currency exchange and credit cards. The brand comes out clearly albeit not strongly. The brand personalization is apparently minimal. Brand personalization is an attempt to evoke emotions in people by getting the brand you offer describe the people who use it. For instance you can say that all the people who use a given airline are beautiful or handsome (Gob, 2001). Apart from the welcome note, there are other features reminiscent of brand personalization. For instance, the structuring of the website in such a way that specific target groups get specific services which best fit their needs. This is evidenced from the structuring the site into UK site, US site and other sites meant for Spain, Germany, France and Italian audiences. Brand commitment is however everywhere in website wherever there is sales. For instance, the brand is committed to offer the services paid for and offers advice on the best deal possible. The commitment is also evident from the exact specifications of the services within the brand. The sales offer options that are meant to fit the interests of majority of the customers. 4.1.4 Website Layout, Navigation and Attractiveness The website is very simple and this makes the finding of the functional fields easy. Basically, there is no overcrowding of literature and features. The site is structured in such a way that each market segment has its own site branch offering services which are well tailored to meet the particular needs of these market segments. The fact that the site is very simple fails it to make it attractive. Actually, as compared to Virgin Atlantic Airline's site, British Airline's site comes off as really wanting it terms of attractiveness. The designer of the site may have laid more emphasis on the functionality and entirely forgot about the magnificence of the site and its role in attracting customers and hence its contribution in the building of the overall brand. The structure of the web makes navigation easy and thus manages traffic. Imagine if all the customers were booking using the same site; this would create much traffic making the processing of these booking requests tedious and lengthy. 4.2Virgin Atlantic Airlines Website 4.2.1 Purpose of the Site and Web Business Model The site as well is designed to advertise the services offered by the airline as well as offer sales to customers. The sales are on flight tickets, car rentals, hotel rentals or bookings etc. The site, as compared to that of British Airlines, is more details in its advertisements. It advertises entire service offered as well as the features that support these services. Offers are advertised, advice on how to manage aerophobia, membership to the flying club etc 4.2.2 Target Market The target market is also varied. It targets all and sundry in its destination countries. However, it has US sites and UK sites. These targeted customers are those in any on of the destinations who may wish to travel to one or more destinations. It occurs that virgin Atlantic airline has more destinations than British airlines and as such it has a wider target market as compared to British airlines. 4.2.3 Online Brand, Brand Personalization and Brand Commitment Virgin Atlantic airline builds a stronger brand than British airlines. This is made possible as a result of features such as press releases which are apparently missing in the British airlines. These features, especially press releases, help build a formidable brand which gets easily recognised the moment one logs into the website. Further, the virgin Atlantic airline's site has other two more features that help strengthen the brand. These features are the face book (social networking site) and YouTube which are well known for not only maintaining brand exposure but also enhancing brand consistence hence ensuring the desired internet brand strength. Brand personalization is achieved through the offering of different classes of brands within one brand. For instance, the offering of economy class, premium economy class and first class communicate nothing other than brand personalization. The message communicated by these offers is the fact that Virgin Atlantic is a multi personality brand or is it a collection of various brands with various brand personalities It also tries to personify its brand gorgeous i.e. anybody who buys their brand is gorgeous too. This is shown from the beautiful pictures of the crew which confirms the brand personality that Virgin Atlantic wants to put across. Brand commitment is also implied or inferred from the site. The airline commits itself to offer the full brand and even sub brands in a bid to satisfy its customers. It offers services that will enable the customers to enjoy the ultimate brand. These services include car hires, hotel renting, and training of customers with aerophobia to get rid of the fear so that they can enjoy the flight among other services which try to help the customers enjoy the main brand. The carrying out of competitions where the winner is to receive a treat helps foster both brand strength and brand commitment. For instance, in the Virgin Atlantic airline's site there is something to do with a look-alike competition. The person who looks exactly as the one whose picture appears on the site will receive VIP tickets to attend the airline's 25th party to be held in New York. Does the birthday celebration by the airliner have any brand benefits Inasmuch as it may appear that the celebration is only an official annual celebration, it may have an impact on the brand strength and brand commitment as well. Brand strength is implied by the fact that the brand has done 25 years and is still going strong. It involves the customers in the celebrations to communicate to them that they as well have had a hand in building and the continued strengthening of the brand. Similarly, brand commitment is implied in that, after 25 years, the airliner still continues to move on fulfilling its commitments and promises of quality services to the customers. 4.2.4 Website Layout, Navigation and Attractiveness The site layout is simply amazing. It is easily accessible and crowding is managed through easy to reach functional buttons and structuring of the site to have different market segments served via different sub sites. The layout is simply easy to use and absolutely user friendly. As far as attractiveness s of the site is concerned, one is attracted before he/she even starts to look at the features. The site is beautifully set and the pictures of the beautiful planes, beautiful crew members, and beautiful cars for hire serve the purpose of making the site even more beautiful. If this site is compared to the British Airline's then much is left to be desired as far as the British Airline's site is concerned. Virgin Atlantic Airline has perfected to use signature colours which help to make the brand recognition easy. These colours are beautiful set thus giving a beautiful look to the site. Generally, there are a number of areas where the site for Virgin Atlantic Airline scores more s compared to that of British Airline. These areas help Virgin Atlantic to maintain an upper hand as far as internet branding is concerned. The internet brand for Virgin Atlantic comes off more strongly that that of British Airline. Therefore, British Airline is under obligation to improve some aspects of its site so as to achieve a more stronger brand and offer the much required bran d promise and brand commitment. Brand commitment has the potential and ability of evoking loyalty of customers to the brand promise of quality (Fullerton, 2005). These can be achieved by using features such as YouTube, social networking features such as face book and press releases among other features which have been known to greatly improve the internet brand strength. Secondly, the attractiveness of the site requires improvement to be able to get a hold on the customers. If the site is beautiful, it creates an impression about the kind of brand that may be in the offing and as the old adage goes, the first impression stays. Indeed, if the first time a customer checked out a brand and was attracted, then there is a guarantee that he/she will come back next time with his/her friends having told them about the brand promise of quality. It is common knowledge that everyone will want to be associated with the winning team and thus if a company minds a lot about perfecting its internet brand strength, then the offline brand strength will be just as good and your guess is best as mine that such a company needs only to maintain brand consistence to achieve all its sales objectives (McDowell & Batten, 2005: pp121-126). Conclusion In conclusion, it is now very clear that internet marketing requires an aggressive brand differentiation and brand strengthening in order to survive the steep competition. A company needs to understand that it is not alone in the venture into internet marketing and that most of its competitors are also online. This realization will help the organisation to take the necessary steps to maintain or achieve a competitive edge in the market. Market segmentation has been achievable in internet marketing as witnessed by the various audiences targeted by the websites of the above two airliners. Internet brand strength is central to an organisations success even in offline ventures. The design of the site should portray brand strength. This brand strength is achievable through the use of features such as press releases, social networking features, YouTube among other features. Brand commitment should as well be implied from the site. Internet brand strength is very important and if a company has no intention of offering brand promise of quality, brand consistence and maintaining all time internet brand strength, then such a company has no business going online; it can do just fine remaining offline. Internet marketing requires that a stronger brand is elicited so as to foster success. References Ries L & Ries A, (2000): The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding, Harpercollins Publishers, pp123-128 Haig M, (2003): Brand Failures: The Truth about the 100 Biggest Branding Mistakes of All Time, Kogan Page Publishers, pp255-259 Hanson W, (1999): Principles of Internet Marketing, South-Western College Publishers, pp245-255 Hofacker C. F, (2000): Internet Marketing, Wiley Publishers, pp89-93 (Hofacker, 2000: pp89-93) Gob M, (2001): Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm For Connecting Brands To People, Allworth Communications, Incorporated, McDowell W & Batten A, (2005): Branding TV: Principles and Practices, Elsevier Publishers, pp121-126 Fullerton G, (2005): Impact of Brand Commitment on Loyalty to Retail Service Brands, The Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences,June 2005 Read More