Understanding of Marketing via the Internet - Assignment Example

Internet Marketing Insert Insert Task LO1) The task tries to assess the understanding of marketing via the internet. It consistsof three Sub-tasks. Read them carefully, and fulfill each task separately. Provide real-life examples and References to support your answers. 1.1 Define E-Commerce, E-Business, Internet marketing, and Digital Marketing and discuss their differences Electronic commerce-commerce is a term for any business transaction that entails electronic interaction of a provider or seller of a goods with the buyer or recipient of the service via the Internet (Nielsen, 2000). It covers various kinds of businesses, from consumer-based retail sites, via auction or music sites, to the company transaction trading goods and services between organizations. On the other hand electronic-business does not only handle the electronic transfer of rights to something over the Internet but it also encompasses the provision of other services and infrastructure that enable business to be undertaken over the internet. E-business will also entail development of several Internet services like intranet and extranet, developing security infrastructures for safe transactions and the provision of business application over the Internet. It is recently one of the most valuable aspects of the Internet to emerge (Nielsen, 2000). Internet marketing is the marketing efforts done over the internet. It involves the use of various online advertisements to drive traffic and also the advertiser’s website (Ryan, 2004). The different methods used in internet marketing include; banner advertising, pay per click, and emails. These methods bring the most value to the advertiser since most people have access to the internet, and the advertising cost is also minimal. This is because we are living in the digital world where the world wide web has penetrated to most parts of the world through the social media sites and cheap Internet access from the many providers available (Ryan, 2004). Digital marketing is an advanced form of product and service marketing that involves the promotion of products or services via the different forms of electronic media, for example, making promotions through the internet, social media, mobile phones, electronic billboards, television, and radio. It is using mechanisms that allow a sells agent to use the best of both worlds – digital and marketing. While the fundamental rules of marketing are still on, digital marketing isn’t just another new channel for commercialization. On the other hand, it’s a new approach to marketing that offers a unique understanding of consumer behavior. The difference between Internet marketing, and digital marketing is that Internet marketing is a tool used to reach out or create awareness in the market as to the existence of a particular good or service. While digital marketing involves the use of all the media to create awareness as to the existence of a new or existing product in the market. 1.2 Choose a product (good or service) that one can buy online these days. Explain the product in detail, describe how the product will marketed, sold and delivered using Internet, and discuss the micro- and macro-environment around its marketing environment. One can buy almost all goods and services online today. The product I will look at is a motor vehicle which can stop and bought online from the countries of manufacture, especially the second-hand ones from Japan and United Kingdom. Display of cars is usually on the selling entity’s web site stating all the specifications for instance car type and model, year of manufacture, auction grade, mileage among others. Alibaba website (www.alibaba.com) that is sells cars mostly from the East Asia has a complete description of the cars like its condition, engine size, place of manufacture, fuel it uses, the brand name, the safety features of the vehicle and the color ranges of the model. The site also provides the profile of the company selling the car to ensure their credibility. Once the buyer has settled on the preferred model, payment arrangements are made, it is normally in consultation with their office located in the buyers country. Once the payment is over, shipping arrangements are made to the customers’ requirements. It can vary depending on whether the client wants it loaded into a container or just carried on the ship without the container. Before shipment starts, the client has to ascertain that the car will be allowed in the country as some countries have restrictions of importation on the age of the vehicle. During shipment process, one can track the location of the vehicle in high seas up to the time that it arrives at the port. On arrival at the port, you have to clear the various taxes levied by the government. Once all this is over, the vehicle will belong to you. The micro environment is the factors that do not affect the whole industry at large. (Palmer, 1999) These factors include; market size, most of the vehicle manufacturers have a global presence that makes internet marketing necessary. The demand and supply of the motor vehicles will also determine how to market the products. Competitors also play an important so as do the suppliers and the distribution channels (Palmer, 1999). The macro environment is factors that affect the whole industry at large. These include; government regulation for example vehicles produced in japan are restricted to a maximum speed and also the horse powers. Other factors include taxes, inflation, recession, depression, customer confidence levels and currency exchange rates 1.3 Considering the product you chose in task 1.2, explain the elements of its Internet Marketing, and critically discuss ES its Internet marketing mix. The internet marketing mix for this product is; e-Product Strategies in online shopping, the tangibility of the product is not there. There is a clear online information relating to the product one buys. The buyer exactly knows the product features, the facts, not salesperson assumptions. The buying habit also customizes the coming back of visitors, creating a repeat purchasing quick thus ensuring customer loyalty (Ryan, 2004). Firms can also provide immediately ancillary services or products together with the major primary transaction. For instance, the shift to acquire extra printer cartridges together with the purchase of ones printer online. The product can also be customized to consumer’s needs internet links offer of their trainers on how to use online. Users can design and see their teachers online before placing an order (Ryan, 2004). E-Price tactics: Earlier in the Marketing Mix section, pricing is always hard to decide, and one has to take into account many considerations. Traditionally pricing was about finding of your costs, discovering the willingness of consumers to pay, considering pricing competition then setting the price. The internet has made pricing of services and products very competitive. Many costs for instance, the store costs, staff cost have disappeared from complete online warehouses, setting product price pressures on existing retailers. The internet enables customers to shop across the world for the best deal by pressing a button. Website such www.kelkoo.com compares from various sites informing clients of the best deal. Easy access to resources helps to retain prices within the online world. The expansion of online auctions also helps users to dictate price. The online auction organization has expanded in considerably with thousands of consumers and seller bidding daily. E-pricing can also quickly reward loyal customers. Technology allows track of repeat visitors, quickly allowing loyalty direction of incentives to towards them. Payment will also make it easy and PayPal as well as credit cards use, allows easy payments. Moreover, it can be a demerit for it can lead to internet fraud, which is growing quickly across the globe. E-place strategies: One of the significant advancement in the marketing sector is online transaction. Consumers can acquire goods directly from manufacturers avoiding the retailers entirely. The challenge for an online seller is to ensure that the service or product is delivered to the customer within a reasonable time. Location is critical to our place strategy. Online site can refer to place links on other websites. Putting a link on the site will generate high consumer traffic to the seller. Understanding the customer as well as knowing where they visit, should help one understand where to place the online links, as well as promotions. E-promotion tactics Promoting products and service online is concerned with various issues. Having a recognizable identification is the initial stage in relation to e-promotion. Most organization have a position successfully the brand in the online market as an online bank. Task 2 2.1 Provide a clear and thorough definition for the following key elements of the Internet Marketing. • Search engine marketing (SEM) It is also called search marketing. The method involving the purchasing of ads appearing on the outcome pages of search engines. It is a method gaining traffic, visibility or easy accessibility for search engines (Forsyth, 2004). • Search engine optimization (SEO) SEO is a word that is used to describe all marketing strategies for searching on the browser. It is an element of the entire topic of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). It, therefore, refers to the policies that make a website rank higher in organic search results, hence making your website more visible and available to individuals looking for a product or service via search engines. Search engine optimization increases the possibilities of the site to be easily located by a search engine thus making it more relevant (Forsyth, 2004). Paid search engine marketing It is a cheaper form of web marketing to connect your ads actively seeking what you provide (Forsyth, 2004). Pay per click advertising (PPC) The mode of online advertising that uses Internet search engines, networks, and content sites and the prices majorly on the number of clicks a certain ad on a website receives. The costs for advertisements through search engines are in this mode. The amount payable for every click is entirely dependable on the choice of keywords and the completion of these keywords. Thus, when a customer conducts a search on the internet, say for a particular type of a commodity, they will see advisements from a variety of related merchants. • Email marketing The use of data that is electronic and software or applications for planning.Moreover, the execution reception as well as distribution and pricing of ideas goods and services, in order to come up with exchanges that will satisfy both individual and organizational goals. E-Marketing, therefore, includes the Internet, World Wide Web, e-mails and all other E-Marketing tools such as Intranets, Extranets, and mobile phones. The perception of e-Marketing is like a new methodology and a modern business exercise which in the marketing of products, services, resources and ideas through electronic means and the internet too. 2.2 Read the short case study/scenario attached to this assignment and discuss how the product (in the entertainment industry is marketed • Online public relations Social media techniques like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace are believed to have created platforms for “mass-intimacy”. Citing an example of Lady Gaga, she has set up a Facebook fan page where she began talking to her fans and publicizing herself. Apart from this, Gaga is an active member of Twitter, which is yet another open social media. On Twitter, Gaga can directly communicate with her fans five times per day averagely. She also has many followers, about ten million on the same social media. With these broad numbers which were there by 2011, it means she had already built an online fan base which is way bigger than the populations of most countries. Gaga has continuously development, has a unique relationship with the fans. It is through addressing them as their “Little Monsters". Besides, IT has gas gone a step in pleasing their fans by putting a tattoo of the fans’ name “Little monsters” on her arm. She has kept her fans so close that even in her concerts she tweets messages to her audiences just in order to bear in touch with them leaving none feeling left out. She also gives her fans priority over media on the release of her new albums and singles. • Digital media communities Lady Gaga utilizes the digital media communities such as YouTube by regularly posting her latest videos on her official YouTube channel since YouTube has remained the biggest video platform for viewing searching and viewing videos online. Lady Gaga also has her website where she broadcasts a series of her new video diaries called Transmission Gaga vision. She has .made all of her videos free to download from her YouTube channel and her website enhancing a natural online marketing. Therefore, fans can buy her tracks easily through links with online music studios such as Amazon or Apple’s iTunes. Statistics shows that Lady Gaga’s Poker Face was the best-selling online clip in 2009 with a total unit sale of 9.8 million units. A conclusion drawn from Lady Gaga’s close interaction with her fans is the primary reason for her great sales on the E-Market. Task 3 (LO3) This task tries to evaluate your ability in conducting market research. For this task, you need to choose a product (different from the one you chose before in task 1.2) and fulfill the following three sub-tasks. 3.1 Provide a short market research report on the product’s market, indicating key factors such as market size, market share, sales trends, customer expectations, sales channels, emerging markets, and so on. In this task you just need to conduct a secondary market research using secondary available data (e.g. published surveys and reports, online research communities, government information, census, data shared by professional bodies, white papers, and the like). Provide references to support your answers. [P3.1] Research on online selling of IPhone in India Technology plays a significant role in improving the quality of services provided by business units. Khan and Mahapatra (2009) argue that, one of the techniques that have brought information revolution in the society is the Internet Technology. It is the third wave of revolution after agrarian revolution and the industrial revolution. India, being on the Asian continent together with other countries is taking advantage of e-commerce by opening of economies, which is a factor in promoting competition and diffusion of Internet technologies (Waghmare 2012). The product has had a market share close to 4% compared to the other mobile phone products. It indicates a low share of the market and will call for effort in the bid to enter and increase the market share for the IPhone. This is a small market size that does bring low revenue to the Apple Company and can be regarded as a flaw. On the internet online research companies that sale the product and the company’s website has reported the increase of requests and persons who shop for the product online. Since its inception and entrance into India the IPhone product was not well received yet it has gained a sales increase with a steady pace. Long queues have been witnessed in stores with the Apples product. Customers have followed up the release of newer products which portrays increased demand. It has been regarded to the marketing developed by the company majorly online and through media. In Metropolitan India, most people have embraced the shopping of IPhone through e-commerce. At least 59% of monthly online consumers make purchases despite the online expenditure remaining small. Users of the IPhone in the non-metropolitan India tend to be as a result of shopping online for the goods that are not available in their local stores. Estimation by Zia and Manish (2012) is that e-commerce retailers in India are extending their business to the online population in non-metropolitan India and are heavily investing in the infrastructure in order to support this. For instance, ten online apparel retailers Myntra.com has seen a high demand for these commodities in nonmetropolitan India. Sales going up to 50% always takes place outside the metropolitan India. Multiple retailers in the process of widening their market have constructed their warehouses in the rural areas and given offers such as cash on delivery for those without bank accounts for efficient sale of the mobile phone technology yet serves as the emerging market that need increased marketing and reaches with information for them to purchase and acquire the IPhone. 3.2 Identify the market data which you could not find in your secondary market research, and design a primary research to collect those market data using digital tools (e.g. online, mobile, etc.). You are needed to determine your sample; choose research methodology (e.g. Survey, focus group, etc.), create your online questionnaire (e.g. In www.surveymonkey.com) pre- test and validate the questionnaire, and recommend a valid data analyze data method. [P3.2,M3] Internet marketing Marketing data that relays customer preferences in metropolitan India is not available in secondary research. There is some of the information that cannot be in both primary and secondary data during the research process. A good number of consumers do buy phone type of their choices and preferences, and it does vary from customer to another depending on the quality of a given product. In relation to the above, it is very difficult for the researcher to find exact data on what are the phone tastes and preferences of an individual at any given time or within a certain financial year. For instance, personal taste and preferences do vary a lot when it comes to products like mobile phones. It is because some individuals like the design of a given mobile phone, for instance Nokia and or Samsung etc. An individual can prefer to buy the phone because of the interest that one has on the phone. Others might prefer to purchase a Samsung phone because of either its size or good network coverage. It is hard for the researcher critically to analyze the data basing on the test and preferences of the consumers of a given product. In addition, phone choices highly differ because of various reasons, for instance, the selling price of the phone. There are many consumers who prefer to buy the product by basing on the price factor. Some prefer to buy expensive phones because they think it will last long, and others purchase the product because of its lower price. Another factor that makes it hard to determine the market data is the consumer location; products in various countries have a different perception depending on either social or cultural factors. It, therefore, makes it difficult to analyze the online market research data. Buying patterns are also other factors that make it difficult to analyze the research data. Research methodology Research design The marketing data on preferences and buying culture will be focused on using a cross-sectional design on the online platform. Study area To obtain the data on preferences, people in metropolitan cities of India will be sought for to relay feedback on preferences about the Apple product compared to other mobile phones. Data collection methods In coming up with facts about the market product preferences, online interviews will be conducted. A random sample of 100 people in 5 major cities of India will be randomly. In addition A digital tool will be used to collect data. The mobile phone will be used to collect the data to employ in the analysis process. There will be a random sampling of the numbers and sending text messages as well as calling, to get individual contribution in relation to online marketing. The researcher will randomly sample 100 numbers, and then send text messages to the 50 of them and call the remaining 50 to acquire their views. Online questionnaires, interviews, and observations are among the methods that will aid in data collection. One on one interview will be carried out to determine the consumer perception in relation to a given product selling in the market. Individuals will also have to fill questionnaires with questions targeting to attain adequate information about online marketing. The researchers will also manually observe the buying trends of in various online markets across the world and make enough recommend basing on the same. An online questionnaire Research project on online marketing Why do individuals prefer an IPhone over the other mobile phone products? What is the rate of personal consumption of the IPhone? What is the challenges consumers face when acquiring an IPhone online? Is online marketing reliable for product identification? Is online shopping same as any other shopping? The questionnaire is valid in the sense that, it tries to find how individuals react to the online marketing. It will lead to understanding their perception relating to online marketing. The correlation can be the most suitable method to test the sample data because it will show the degree of association between different variables.... 3.3 Based on your overall understanding of the product’s market (achieved through subtasks 3.1 And 3.2), discuss the benefits of the internet/digital tools and techniques for relationship marketing management. You can address some critical issues like loyalty, lower costs, easier targeting On-line marketing offers more options and varieties of the mobile phones [Lamoureux, 1997] and, besides, it cuts down on huge inventories, storage costs, utilities, rental space, etc. Use of the Internet as a distribution channel reduces not only the delivery cost substantially, but also ensures instant delivery of products in this case, the IPhone, thus making it affordable. Marketing campaigns for these commodities are also less expensive. Another advantage of online advertisement is that it is efficient in terms of delivery and success stories are measurable because the internet is used around the clock. Task 4 (LO4) Based on the Product you chose in Task 3; carry out the following two sub-tasks. You also need to present the outcome of this task during the lecture hours in week 12-14. 4.1 Produce an outline internet marketing plan for the products. Your plan should include the following sections: Environmental analysis; Competitors analysis; Channel analysis, SWOT analysis (examination of business strengths and weaknesses in online markets, and the opportunities and threats of online markets), and market segmentation by channel, users, etc. [P4.1, M3] Environment analysis In India, use of national currencies has been adopted hence a good gesture for the international product in a local market. The presence of other mobile phones companies in India is an idea to consider. India and china employ cheap labour and manufacturing strategies hence a big barrier for entrance of the western giants to set high prices for their products. The increase in the demand for the IPhone product is a green light to increase marketing. Competitor analysis Other mobile phone companies including Samsung, Nokia and Huawei have entered the market with cheaper products yet compromised in quality of features. To enter the market, Apple will have to make use of local currency and develop a cheaper product for the market to sustain the competition. Channel analysis Retail stores have been witnessed to have long queues of persons in need for the new releases of the IPhone product. On the other hand, online stores the offer delivery on purchases have successfully conducted sales to the Indian market. The project will make use of local retail store available in Indian metropolitan cities and the online retail stores. SWOT Apple’s IPhone is a quality product compared to other products in the market. It is their strength and will help them propel their market share and increase company’s profit from Indian market. Their weakness is a high price value for the product and may hinder the entrance into the market. In order to increase their reach to customers, they should convert it into an advantage by lowering their prices and increasing marketing. Threats are from china and Indian because they offer similar products at cheaper price according to their local standard. Internet marketing plan for the IPhone Target customers The IPhone in India will sell in both the metropolitan and non-metropolitan regions. My target customers are all the Indian citizens and Asia at large especially those who cannot ‘find the commodities of their desire in the local market and those who have an interest in a variety. The keywords and phrases to use in order for my prospects to find me I intend to use highly specific keywords that are majorly in the le phone market. The majorly will be the names of the IPhone features. It includes camera pixel, internet connectivity, and processor speed, software platform in use, phone dimensions, phone color, and phone prices, upload and download speed. The keywords and phrases that the buyers and researchers will use, in the case of IPhone, for instance, I will use the keyword matching options in the following categories: phrase match. The keywords will be in quotation marks and exact match. The phrase in the search engine is exactly the same as the ones in typing and the keywords in brackets. The traffic achieved by this quest will be more targeted to the IPhone. Use of negative match is yet another form that will prevent my ads from being displayed in the event of an individual word being a keyword for search. I will also create effective ads from companies similar to mine in order to be linked to them and market my commodities. I intend to use PPC in contextual advertising. I will charge the typical price ranging from 5 cents to $1 per click. 4.2 Develop an online pay per click advertising. [P4.2, D3] HEADLINE: need and IPhone? If the client uses Phone, mobile or IPhone in the search, the words need an IPhone? will appear in bold, glittering ad for a few 10seconds before one goes on to the site intended, hence drawing attention to the ad. The daily budget will be $50 costing a $0.25 daily hence increasing the traffic to the IPhone website and other retail stores selling the IPhone products. In addition, articles with backlinks will be delivered to media houses and key words search submitted daily to giant search engines in India. Depending on the campaign goals, the follow up text description might be: FIRST DESCRIPTION LINE: IPhone clearance sale is going on. This phrase reuses the word IPhone, the most probable keyword used for searching. This phrase will once again appear in bold. It supports the intention of locating and selling the IPhone. SECOND DESCRIPTION LINE: check our Website supplies limited. It also shows how to link potential customers to visit the Website. DISPLAY URL: www.IPhone.com DESTINATION URL: http://www.IPhone.com/mobile/clearance. It is the website that contains mobile phone and once the client lands here (s) he can navigate through the pages in search of the desired IPhone. List of References DUNLEVY, K. (2006). SOCIAL MARKETING RESOURCES. Social Marketing Quarterly, 12(4), pp.70-77. Forsyth, K. (2004). Digital Marketing Content management: A prerequisite to marketing and sales effectiveness. J Med Market, 4(3), pp.228-234. Fortin, D. (2000). Global Marketing for the Digital Age20002Bill Bishop. Global Marketing for the Digital Age . Illinois: Lincolnwood 1999. 270pp. $34.95. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 17(4), pp.358-372. Jain, S. (2008). Digital Piracy: A Competitive Analysis. Marketing Science, 27(4), pp.610-626. Kantardzic, M. (2003). Digital Marketing. Journal of Database Marketing, 10(3), pp.279-280. Koiso-Kanttila, N. (2004). Digital Content Marketing: A Literature Synthesis. 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