Wi-Fi's Role for Direct Marketing - Essay Example

Introduction to Direct Marketing Marketing has ever been a critical issue for marketers, and heart of business always lies in the marketing of business. Many aspects of business based upon winning marketing tactics. Marketing plays a major role in the communication business existence and product features to existing and potential customers. Organizations can produce their products but cannot promote or introduced them to their potential customers without the use of marketing (Slater, Hult, & Olson, 2010).There are many methods of marketing, and direct marketing is one of them. During last 10 years, usage of this technique has increased and the cause of this increase is; lower capabilities of mass marketing in targeting and segmentation of relevant audience as compared to direct marketing and technological advancement (Nash, Sabin, & Kornbluth, 2000).Direct marketing is about reaching directly to existing and potential customers. Direct marketers do marketing of their products by making phone calls and by sending e-mail messages. Direct marketing is always about using aggressive tactics. Direct marketers’ objective is to contact, place, offer, and make incentive-based information available to target markets (Chiang, Chhajed, &Hess, 2003). It is different from other marketing methods because direct marketers target selected individuals for sending information related to product and its new offerings and these people will be the respondents. Responses can be an inquiry, purchase, or referrals (Keilhacker, 2000).Dell Computers, Readers Digest, Amazon, Credit, and Charge Card Companies and Time-Life Books are examples of direct marketing (Bird, 2007). Technological Advancement and Wi-Fi Technological advancement is not a new chapter and is known by every organization and marketers. With the change of time and technology, marketing activities has also been changed. Technological advancement has a great impact on marketing activities. Direct marketing has become digital marketing, and people are much aware of their required products’ availability than ever. Everybody has access to the internet through personal computers, mobiles, tablets, and laptops. Customers can access their required information from anywhere in office, home, either outside of the country or even in far more villages. Direct marketers have an immediate response from their customers due to technological advancement. Credit and card charge companies are examples of advanced direct marketing; for example, when people make a purchase through cards their transactions are completed through the mail and the relation between the company and card member take place at large level. Card members are offered with different products, and communication between the company and card members take place through telecommunication, e-mails, and monthly statements (Bird, 2007). The best example of technological advancement is wireless networking also called Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is a short form of wireless fidelity; Wireless networking protocol permits multiple devices to communicate without cables and cords (Goth, 2011). The usage of this service is increasing surprisingly. Many devices can be easily used through this technology like personal computers, tablet computers, video-game consoles, digital cameras, digital audio player, and smart phones. Wi-Fi allows people to connect their devices to internet or exchange data wirelessly. The normal Wi-Fi range can be up-to 5 kilometer but due to increased commercial usage, the focus of wireless networking companies is shifting from small to wider area coverage. Therefore, the new Wi-MAX allow 8 to 50 kilometer of the range that covers a wide range of the area and big amount of people (Kabir et al., 2012). This wide range access has been provided as the solution, to resolve long-range and outdoor connectivity problems. The use of this wireless technology is not bound to individuals, but organizations are also taking advantage from this new technology and getting competitive (Ward, 2006). Ways by Which Wi-Fi Affect Direct Marketers Wi-Fi has a great impact on the way firms are operated; neither direct marketers nor any employee are restricted to work at the office or any specific place in the organization; they can work from anywhere they wish. They do not need to stick at one place for responding to their customers (Pamela, 2004). Marketers have the flexibility of locations they can work from outside to office, gardens, and even they can be in touch with their office members during travelling. Recently, direct marketers activities include making lists of target customers whom services or products will be offered, sending direct mails for offerings and promotion, telemarketing, and direct response advertising activities. In this, advance era consumers understand the value of information, and before having any purchase they search for service or product information; and for this purpose, they rely on internet, mobile phone, and Smartphone. Wi-Fi has influence on marketers in a way that it allows direct marketers to collect more detailed and related information about their customers’ requirements and customers buying behavior, and by this way, Wi-Fi allows marketers to design more appropriate or accurate direct marketing strategies. Direct marketers can do their marketing without disturbing and annoying people (Pamela, 2004). For example, at early stages direct marketers did not have an idea that the customer is free or busy in an important meeting; they just made calls and sometimes they had to face bad behaviors. On the other hand, they were also unable to target customers’ current needs or demands. Now direct marketers do not need to face such issues; they can just not perform their task effectively but also can do by sitting anywhere. Direct marketers can send MMS or SMS to their targeted customers so when customers will not be doing any important task – or want to view company offerings - can take look on these offerings (Jones, 2002) best example of this sort of marketing is mobile companies. Direct marketing demands straight communication to the target customers in order to influence them and Wi-Fi helps direct marketers to fill this demand through free calls. For example, Wi-Fi allows marketers to make free calls and allow them to have communication with full history of customers, and the best example of this is credit or debit card companies. They can answer customer quarries via voice chatting without spending money with continues communication even while walking on the street. Direct marketers can send pictures of their products and detail of their services to their targeted audience’s phones and laptops that enhance the message effectiveness. Wi-Fi has positive effects on direct marketers such as they can access e-catalogs available on web pages and can send promotional offers to their preferred customers through mobile phone. If organizational process is considered then marketers, do not need to ask information from different departments to design their direct marketing strategy they can have all required real-time information available on their desktop or mobile through the simultaneously sharing of resources(Pamela, 2004). This is the most beneficial and effective tool that enables direct marketers to target individuals in a crowd. It is a cheap, cost effective, and immediate marketing tool through which marketers can send messages directly to their customers and can send them payment alerts that reduce the account receivables and enhance the financial position of the company. They can manage good relationships with their customers and can send promotional product and discount information to their current and potential customers. This device extended marketers research through providing location-based information (Sinha, 2004). This means that the company offers can be promoted at the most profitable and important point of sale. Marketers use Wi-Fi for service differentiation, customer retention, and for the reduction of operational cost (Pamela, 2004). Value-Added Services of Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi additional value added services merge the data from WAPs with particular data of customer that includes demographic information and shopping history of customer. Through this facility, Wi-Fi enables direct marketers to deliver their consumers with target marketing offers and increase their in-store shopping experience (Gerhardt et al., 2012). Wi-Fi improves the performance of direct marketers by enabling smart phones to track repeat customers and traffic of stores’ traffic. Through this data capturing service, marketers are able to provide effective services to their targeted customers and can measure their satisfaction level for retaining them. Wi-Fi information capturing permits personalization, and marketers can issue loyalty cards to their most relevant and regular customers which is an important step for customer retention. For example when a Smartphone carrying customers enter in shop Wi-Fi allows retailers to match the purchase history of customers (Deloitte). In the business arena, Wi-Fi is a source of competitive advantage and influential revenue-generating device (Friedman &Vincent, 2005). Wi-Fi influences marketers in such ways that it provides complete mobility of business data with two-way transference. They can access any multimedia information and broadband videos from any place of the world. By placing cameras at required location, marketers can monitor those locations through Wi-Fi. For example if a company has multiple retail-stores in a city and timely delivery of inventory in all retail stores is a critical issue; with the help of Wi-Fi marketers can look at screen placed at their office or any other place that which locations are making more sales and where the promotional activities are needed most. By this way, Wi-Fi will affect the performance and activities of direct marketers and make them able to make available their best and up-to date information to their consumers (Stefano, 2005). Wi-Fi provides the convenient access and delivers the high speed of internet that affects the marketers’ data collection ability and enhances the direct marketers’ relationship with subscribers. Except all positive effects, Wi-Fi has also a negative effect on marketers like access of competitors on the marketer’s confidential information. By having access to confidential information, competitors can hurt direct marketers’ activities by destroying information or by adopting and placing same strategies. Therefore, for the security of internal information virtual private network, firewall, or anti-virus software should be used to be as safe as possible (Waters, 2006). Conclusion With the advancement of technology, marketing activities are booming, and direct marketing is becoming more aggressive. Due to this aggressive marketing, the use of Wi-Fi is booming, and this devise is affecting direct marketers and their activities in many ways. Marketers just not have location-based information, but they also have access to customers’ demographical information and shopping history; by this way, Wi-Fi affects the performance and marketing activities of direct marketers. Still many marketers are unaware from the advantages of Wi-Fi. This article is beneficial for marketers and will help them to understand the marketing benefits that can be availed by the use of Wi-Fi. References Bird, D (2007). Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, 5th Edition. Great Britain: Kogan Page publishers. Chiang, W. Y. K., Chhajed, D., & Hess, J. D. (2003). Direct marketing, indirect profits: A strategic analysis of dual-channel supply-chain design. Management Science, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 1-20 Deloitte (n.d). why Wi-Fi? In-store Engagement With The Constantly Connected Customer. Available at: http://www.deloitte.com/assets/dcom-unitedstates/local%20assets/documents/us_consulting_retail_deloitte_why%20wi-fi_011211.pdf Friedman, B., & Vincent, S. (2005). Growing with web-based one-to-one marketing. CPA Prac. Mgmt. F., vol. 1, pp. 10 Gerhardt, W., Medcalf, R., Taylor, S and Toouli, A. (2012). Profiting from the Rise of Wi-Fi New, Innovative Business Models for Service Providers. Available from https://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/sp/SP_Wi-Fi_PoV.pdf[Accessed 21 April 2014] Goth, G. (2011). Wi-Fi Making Big New Waves:" In-Room" High-Speed Uses to Get Big Boost from Wireless Mainstay. IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 15, no. 5 Jones, A. (2002). Wireless marketing: the linking value of text messaging. Young Consumers: Insight and Ideas for Responsible Marketers, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 39-44. Kabir, A. F., Khan, M., Hayat, R., Haque, A. A. M., & Mamun, M. S. I. (2012). WiMAX or Wi-Fi: The Best Suited Candidate Technology for Building Wireless Access Infrastructure Available from http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1208/1208.3769.pdf[Accessed 21 April 2014] Keilhacker, R (2000). 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Wi-fi promises internet shake up. Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4779124.stm [Accessed 21 April 2014] Waters, D. (2006). Norwich pioneers free city Wi-Fi. Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5297884.stm[Accessed 21 April 2014] Read More