Interactive and Internet Marketing - Term Paper Example

Interactive and Internet Marketing 1.0 Executive summary Operations in many businesses are turning towards electronic ways of doing business. This has seen the coming up of various relationships which are business to business, business to customer, customer to customer, and lastly business to employee .these relationships have given raise to the different types of websites which are in use in the modern world. The websites types are named according to these relationships and include business to business (B2B) websites, business to customer websites (B2C), customer to customer websites (C2C) AND lastly business to employee websites. This report will analyze the four types of websites in detail with respect to the requirements of an efficient website design. The report will also analyze two websites : (http://www.llbean.com and http://www.alibaba.com/ ) with respect to the requirements of a good website design Report on Interactive and Internet Management Table of contents Table of Contents Interactive and Internet Marketing 1 1.0 Executive summary 1 2.0 Introduction 2 3.0 Literature review 3 3.1 B2B websites 3 3.2 B2C Websites 4 3.3 C2C Websites 5 3.4 B2E Websites 5 4.0 Analysis and comparison of two websites 6 4.1 http://www.alibaba.com/ 6 4.2 http://www.llbean.com / 7 4.3 Comparisons of the two websites 8 5.0 Recommendations 9 6.0 Conclusion 9 7.0 Works cited 10 2.0 Introduction The internet is becoming a means of doing things in the modern world. The internet has transformed the world into a global village. It is not surprising to live in Asia but work for a company in America. The abilities of efficient internet use are infinite. Each day a new way of doing things is being introduced into the market, from online jobs to mobile banking, online learning to online marketing , the abilities of the internet are amazing and in addition infinite. Companies have not being left behind in the internet revolution. Integration of internet into the daily activities of a company has brought many changes in the production efficiency of a company. Many activities are now being done via the internet. Some of them include ecommerce which is the integration of electronic processes into the running and processes of a company. Ecommerce has several relationships which have been established under it which are. Business to business (B2B), business to customer (B2C), business to employee (B2E), consumer to business (C2B), and lastly consumer to consumer. All these relationships have enhanced business in companies and have revolutionized it. Other areas in companies which have seen advancements due to the internet are: staffing and recruitment, where the companies do some or whole of their staffing online via their websites. Marketing where the companies market their products and services via the internet hence expanding their markets and aloes build their brands, customer care where the companies may have online chats or feedbacks to their customers (Ronald, Benzbasat , Natour 2011).The list is endless and the activities done via internet and technology are only limited to the creativity of the IT specialist in a company. This paper will discuss the various types and concepts of websites and also analyze two websites belonging to different companies. It is a report being done as an assignment for the course marketing. 3.0 Literature review 3.1 B2B websites B2B is a short form for business to business. The concept may apply to business transactions between businesses of any kind. B2B websites are websites which deal with the transaction between on business and the other. B2B websites are specifically designed to enable the users to transact inter business transactions. The objectives of B2B websites is to link two trading companies in order to perform a certain business transaction. Normally, the transactions may involve accompany and its suppliers, a company and its distributors and many more. Basically, B2B websites create a link between two companies with an intention of transacting a business. A well designs B2B website must be able to fully meet the needs of the user. The user in this context refers to the trading companies. In many instances, companies have website which do not give conclusive information about a product for instance the full price of a commodity. Many B2B websites do not quite the prices accurately which is a bad design of the website. A good design of a B2B website must also be able to manage, regulate and keep tract of its members. This will ensure that the trading parties are all put at ease of transacting and will also ensure that the trading companies are able to meet the needs of each other. A good design must also be able to provide a customer care avenue so as to enable the transacting partners to expound on unclear issues (Stifrin 14). Lastly a B2B must be easy to use. 3.2 B2C Websites Business to customer (B2C) websites is websites which link the customers to business (Tan ,Tung & Xu 156)Through this websites, a customer is able to get products and services from the business. The websites are characterized by product images and descriptions of the various products that a business has to offer. The description must be fit the product being advertised. In addition to this, the website must quote the price of the products it deals with so as to enable the customer to make budgetary allocations to the specific product that he / she wants to buy. An efficient B2C website must be able to convince a potential customer to buy the products that a certain company is advertising on its website with reference that the website is specifically designed for the customers, it must be able to exhibit strong marketing abilities since in addition to it being a selling avenue, it is also intended to lure more people into buying the products from the concerned company (Tan ,Tung & Xu 159) . a well designed B2C website must provide the potential c customer with information about payment details and delivery. More often than not, customers who buy their products online do not like the idea of going physically to a store to purchase the desired commodity. For this reason, it is necessary for B2C websites to give information about delivery. Payment details should be included in the website so as to enable the c customer to know the most convenient means of making payments to the company. Lastly as it is mandatory for most websites, B2C websites must have a customer service section which offers the customer a chance to make inquiries about any pending issues (yang , Han & Wang 2011) 3.3 C2C Websites Customers to customer (C2C) websites are websites which create a link between a customer and another customer. An efficient customer to customer website must have a well laid out membership recruitment plan. The website must also have a customer care service.. The website must be easy to use. This is done with the knowledge that many people with different IT knowledge will visit the website hence their convenience must be put at heart. 3.4 B2E Websites Businesses to employee (B2E) websites are websites whose main objective is to link the business and its employees. The company / business owning the website may be seeking to maintain a good relationship with its employees or may be seeking to get new employees to work for it. The latter objective is the most common. For a B2E website to be efficient it must include the requirements of the business in a potential employee. Business also uses B2E websites to offer products and services to the employees of the business. Another notable feature of a B2E website is a recruitment portal whereby the employee can post his or her qualifications on the website for review. Businesses to employee websites are normally integrated into other websites. Other requirements of an efficient B2E are the same as the requirements of the website types discussed above. 4.0 Analysis and comparison of two websites The following section will analyze two websites belonging to two different companies and examine the efficiency of their designs. The websites are http://www.alibaba.com/ a B2B website and http://www.llbean.com / which is a B2C website. 4.1 http://www.alibaba.com/ Alibaba.Com is a B2B website. The website offers a good chance for business looking for various products and services to find a good match for them. The website is characterized by a large variety in that the website has links to various companies and professions in various sectors of the economy. For example the website has links to business supplying goods and products in the energy sector, agricultural, commercial, electrical automobile among many other sectors. This is a good characteristic of the website since its is able to give its users diversity, a key element sough for in B2B websites. The website is easy to use. The various sectors of the economy from which any business would want to get products from are aligned on the left side of the website. Theis makes it easier for new users to be able to use the website easily and acess wht they want. The website has a clear quotation of prices and delivery quantities where necessary. For instance abusiness looking for a crude oil supplier can clearly see that Crude Oil & Gas BLCO, D2 suplies a minimum order of a 1000 barrels, its supply ability is 100 barrels per week and it payment terms are L/CC,T/T, Western Union and Money Gram. The latest price is shown as per the current prices of oil. This is what a business intending to purchase crude oil would desire to see from a website hence Alibaba . com has succeeded in attaining this objective. In addition to that, the website a has a well structured membership registration. This enables the site to give personalized services to its members for example mailing. This crates user confidence hence resulting to the businesses transacting using the website to get the products and services which they desire. Lastly, another major requirement that the site has been able to integrate into its functionality is a good search engine. The website has an option of searching directly for a specific item, business, product, service or professional which a user wants. This enables the search to be fast hence time saving to the user. 4.2 http://www.llbean.com / The website is a good example of a B2C website. The site markets and sells cloth ware for all ages of people. The main objectives of this website are to market and sell the products concerned. For this reason it has employed some marketing strategies. For example : offering discounts on items. Allowing discount on items lures more customers to buying items from the website. The website is well known for its high quality products hence by allowing discounts ot the items, more people will visits the website and purchase what they want since they have the feeling that they are buying quality items at a cheap price. With regard to marketing also, the website is offering L.L. Bean visa card holders a chance to earn 10 dollar coupons. This serves as an enticement for people to apply for the visa cards with the intention of earning the 10 dollar coupon. With his, LL Bean is able to increase its customer base and in the same time increase sales when the coupons are used to buy items from the website. The website has a clear display of the items it has on sale. In addition to the clear display, the website has clear price tags attached to each item and a detailed description of the item. For instance if a man wanted to buy pants he can be able to purchase a double L Jeans classic fit for $27.96 dollars and in so doing saves 20% since the original price is $34.95. This is an ideal example of an item description that a customer would desired from a B2C website. In addition to that, the delivery terms are well laid out. Free delivery is available to customers without any regard to the quantity of items purchased. Lastly, the website is well designed to enable the user to navigate easily through the website in his/ her search for the desired items. The website also has a membership plan where the customers submit their details for efficient delivery of services. The membership plan also enables the user (customer) to receive personalized services such as mailing, special services e.g. delivery, discounts among others. The website has been able to meet the requirements of an efficient B2C website hence it is ranked among the top B2C websites in the world. 4.3 Comparisons of the two websites Www.Alibaba. Com and http://www.llbean.com / have many similarities. They are : both have a well structured membership plan. This enable the websites to offer quality services to its users. Personalized services are achievable sine the user submits his/ her personal details to the website. Both are easy to use, this creates an ease of navigation in the website for the user. On top of being a good marketing tool, the ease use of the website enables the user to select wisely the product that he /she desires. Both have a good product/ service description, and lastly, both are updated regularly hence do not give outdated information. All the above similarities are requirements of an efficient website which makes the two websites some of the most successful one in marketing. 5.0 Recommendations The websites have achieved their purposes and objectives. Statistics show that the websites are among the top performing B2B and B2C websites. However, thre is still room for improvement for the websites. The websites have their target markets throughout the world hence they need to diversify the languages they use and integrate the widely spoken languages of the world into their websites The websites should liaise for more memory allocation from the internet service providers in a bid to make their websites faster so as t allow heavy traffic Lastly, the websites should create more client friendly fees for their clients so as to increase their markets, they could for instance rate links in the websites to fit different budgets 6.0 Conclusion In conclusion, e commerce is an emerging trend in business. its success in the running of a business and also profitability of the business are numerous hence necessitating its integration into every business. Internet provides the right avenue towards realizing this new demand. Various website designs are available to fit different purposes. Business to business websites enable businesses to find the right businesses with which they can team up with towards realizing a certain goal or from which they can get quality products and services from. 7.0 Works cited Alibaba. Com . Global Trade Starts Here Viewed on 18 th August 2011. http://www.alibaba.com/ L.L. BEAN. Shipped for free guaranteed to last .Viewed on 18 th August 2011. http://www.llbean.com/ Ronald ,T, Benzbasat I, Natour S. Addressing The What And How Of Online Services, (2008) 161 - 182 Striffin, T. Bad Design Of B2b Website Hits Sales. (2006): 14-15 Tan F., Tung, L. & Xu Y. A Study Of Web-Designers’ Criteria For Effective Business-To-Consumer (B2c) Websites Using The Repertory Grid Technique. (2009) 155-177 Zyang L, Han Y & Wang L. Information Availability On Chinese Apparel B2c Websites. (2011) 420 - 429 Read More