Marketing Strategies of B2C Websites - Essay Example

Marketing Strategies of B2C Websites Introduction Information technology has made remarkable changes in the infrastructure and operations of almost all fields of life, ranging from medicine to tourism etc. The field of business is also no different. The advent of computers has made revolutionary changes in the mode of business and continues to provide innovative techniques for the enhancement and convenience to the business owner and customer, respectively. E-commerce is such a technology that has provided a new dimension to the world of business, it provides the opportunity to buy and sell products or services over electronic communication. E-commerce is not only limited to the exchange of goods or services, it involves a broad range of activities in different departments such as design, finance, promotion, distribution etc (OECD 2001). This has become one of the most popular and productive sources for business transactions (Kerner 2005). Companies invest great deal of their resources to have an appealing presence on the internet to attract consumers towards their products and services. Overview There are two main classifications on the basis of which strategies are formulated to promote and market the products and services of the respective company- business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C). These classifications are made on the basis of the type of target market that is chosen by the business owner; the buying-end can either be a business itself (B2B) or an individual consumer who has certain requirements (B2C). B2B sales are targeted for a limited segment of customers whereas B2C sales are aimed for the whole set of consumer market (YourDictionary.com n.d.). Relevance of B2C websites The competition in the markets is more than ever and is still increasing. This has arisen as a result of the consumer’s access to global products and services rather than being restricted to local ones. E-business makes access to global products even more convenient. Companies are required to possess an attractive presence on the World Wide Web since otherwise they will loose the race for greater market shares and revenues. The following are some of the incentives that are gained by B2C websites: The dynamic nature of the web facilitates frequent promotions by companies regarding their products and services and these marketing strategies cost much lesser than the conventional modes of promotion and marketing. Figure 1: Online Retail Business Growth in US (Burns 2005) Figure 2: Revenue Growth in Different Categories (Burns 2005) The internet user generally browses the website himself. The marketing messages can be reached to him on a personal level. There may exist enhanced responsiveness in the medium of the World Wide Web between the customer and the e-business company that will develop good customer relations for the company (Singh 2001). Reduction in business cycles causes a great decrease in costs for the company. Microsoft allowed their employees to interact with their permitted set of vendors and gave them the authority to make the purchases of the required hardware with the allotted budget and existing constraints (Vergnes 2001). Development of Marketing Strategies for B2C Websites Business-to-consumer websites provide a direct connection between the consumers and the suppliers. A great deal of research, experience, analysis is needed to formulate marketing strategies for B2C websites since many important things are related to this concept; for example security, loyalty of the consumer, convenience for the consumer etc. Following are some of the considerations that need to be made when strategies are being developed; 1. Convenience for the Consumer Business transactions should be developed such that there exists convenience for the consumer. Yaping et al (2009) explained that complex business transactions also tend to increase the transaction costs for the supplier therefore they should be kept simple and reliable. The consumer will be provoked to make more purchases if the process is kept simple. 2. Trust Earning the trust of the consumer should be given prime importance as the consumer provides the e-business provider with his personal information. The e-business provider should ensure that the requested product or service is provided to the consumer as it was promised at the time of the purchase. There is no physical presence in the e-business transaction therefore extensive measures should be taken to ensure the customer of the confidentiality of the process and thus the quality of the delivered product or service. 3. Customizability of products Another feature of B2C websites that should be integrated in the development of strategy is to provide the customers with the build-to-order option. The customer should be provided the function of customizing the product according to his needs and profiles. The build-to-order option works best on the web platform since the customer can be given a number of choices to choose from. Dell Computer Corporation is a good example in this case; they have shifted their strategy from making mass-produced products to developing build-to-order ones (OECD 2001). Other industries are also developing efficient strategies to provide this functionality in their B2C websites. This enables the consumer to buy exactly what he desires and thus provides good feedback to his peers about the company. Marketing Strategies Krishnamurthy et al (2005) stated that the marketing strategy for e-businesses is based on the traditional principle of 4 P’s- product, price, promotion, place, along with three more aspects which are; people, processes and physical evidence. The foremost step in the formulation of the B2C marketing strategy of any e-business website is to identify the target audience of the products and services offered by the company and why would the customers need to hear their marketing message. The customer’s needs and limitations with the existing products that are being used by them should be identified (either by surveys or research) so that they can be overcome in their products and thus advertised to grasp the customer’s attention. When a retailer launches his website on the web to attract consumers rather than businesses, he should understand that his website should be able to stand out among the numerous other similar endeavours. Design of the B2C website Simply displaying the products on the web is not sufficient anymore. Static websites with unattractive content never catches the attention of many consumers. On the contrary, dynamic animations and vibrant images tend to make the consumers notice the presence of the e-business (Nicholas Creative Media 2008). But there should be a reasonable balance between the amount of text and images/animations on the website. When the consumer reaches the website after being provoked by the attractive marketing messages only half the battle is won. The next aim is to make the shoppers (visitors) into buyers (Murphy 2007). The attention of the consumer should be retained with the help of the user-friendly layout of the website and the manner in which their products are marketed there. The latest promotions and deals should be advertised in a prominent manner to tempt the customer to make the purchase. There are several types of online advertising that can be used to promote the B2C website for e-business; Rich media: Video, pop-up windows Display Ads: Leaderboard (728 x 90 pixels), banner (468 x 60 pixels) Text Ads: Search Engine Marketing ads, links ads. (Cao 2005) Geo Marketing Geo Marketing is a type of marketing that identifies the location of the consumer with the help of geo-location technology (Gueye 2006). This can help the e-businesses to cater to the specific requirements of the consumers according to their local culture, climate, law etc (Laurie 2005). For example alcohol should not be advertised in places where its usage is prohibited by law like in Muslim countries. The e-business company would refrain from marketing alcohol in Muslim countries and therefore make different websites for different target audiences. A marketing plan or campaign can easily fail if summer wear is advertised for the consumer living in those parts of the planet where summer is rarely witnessed. The main incentive should be to send a targeted message to the appropriate set of consumers which would speak directly to them. Incorporation of relevant content Along with the targeted marketing message, relevant content should be available on the website. Since the consumers in a B2C website are the users themselves therefore the features of the products should be explained in a general and layman language (Warholic n.d.). This will facilitate comprehension of the features and functions that are offered by the product or the service. The users generally complete the process of the business transaction in a B2C website alone, therefore the instructions for a successful transaction should also be explained in a clear manner. The main entry of the website is not always the entry point for all customers. Some customers might enter the website from a specific product of their need and then browse to other sections. The minds behind the marketing of the website should not forget this and should promote their messages and deals in every section of the website. This enhances the possibility of more sales and latest promotion messages are reached to a greater number of users (Dholakia 2002). Learn from the Past The buying pattern of the consumer should be understood by the e-business and the motivating factors that lead to certain purchases. Every company has certain characteristics that drive the consumers to come back to them for repeated business. Those factors should be identified by analysis or surveys and made the force to drive marketing strategies. It is always a good practice to identify the frequent customers of the e-business as their needs and demands would have been successfully fulfilled by the respective products. Choice of suitable words and phrases It is very important for the content on the website to have suitable words and phrases, with respect to which traffic can be increased on the website. Analysis should be done regarding the choice of words that would lead the customer to their B2C website. There are numerous variables that can be used to refer to the main aim of the website, some of them are; theme of the website, external links, keywords from other websites etc (Warholic n.d.). Continual improvement and update of the keywords is also a good practice since technologies and products are both liable to change with time. Successful E-business Marketing Strategies of Different B2C websites Dell Inc. is a good example of a successful B2C e-business company. Dell Inc. promote their products to a diverse range of customers with different marketing strategies for example they use a different marketing strategy for selling systems for educational purposes and would adapt a different approach to promote their financial systems to businessmen. They provide access to the information on their website at any time from any given location. They offer their customers self-help service, along with guaranteed good quality service (Nicholas Creative Media 2008). Over the past few years, it has become very common to market products and services on social networking sites. The most famous website for this has proven to be Facebook. The researchers have concluded that Facebook tends to bear even better results than Google since the users are present on Facebook for a longer period of time (Worsham 2009). The researchers further stated that users might go to Google for a specific purpose like researching or finding a specific thing and might ignore the marketing messages there. Users frequently log on to Facebook on their mobiles to see the updates of their profiles, therefore it is accessed by greater number of users. Facebook has over 350 million global users and this number increases everyday. The average Facebook user spends around 55 minutes on it (Chris 2010). Many companies that have successful B2C websites advertise on Facebook namely; Microsoft, Dell etc. Intel has had a remarkable history regarding its endeavors to gain e-business competitive advantage. Intel deployed its first e-business system in 1998 and earned US $1 billion through online sales every month in that year. It was due to this innovation that Intel became the 5th most successful organization in US in 2000 (Phan 2003). Intel promoted its e-business by advertising the fact that they were transforming their conventional vendor-centric model to customer-centric model. They achieved this task in the times when this concept was only evolving. Figure 3: Intel’s Developer Site (Phan 2003) Causes of failure of E-business Marketing Strategies The most common cause of failure of e-business marketing strategy is the lack of a direction of the marketing plan. The main aim of the website and the marketing campaign should be identified so that the marketing messages can be focused and motivating towards a common direction (Sarner 2009). Cao et al (2005) pointed out the fact that some marketing strategies are not monitored when they are executed, due to which the result is not acceptable or up to the mark that was expected. Constant monitoring helps retain a consistent direction of the marketing strategy on the web. It is also found that most of the efforts regarding marketing and promotions are only apparent in the initial launch of the business. Constant presence on the World Wide Web is vital because the increasing competition causes brand shifts and customer loyalties to change (Borok n.d.). Conclusion Business-to-consumer websites are a great mode of launching e-business on the World Wide Web. Many companies have earned great revenues by selling their products and services on B2C websites. Marketing strategy of the B2C websites requires the identification of the target audience since different types of consumers can be approached with different marketing messages. The main aim of the website should also be understood so that the marketing campaign is focused on a single direction. The content on the site should be relevant and focused on the marketing strategies. The design of the site should be attractive and appealing. It should be coupled with images and animations. However, a reasonable balance should exist between graphics and text. Organizations should learn from their past successful online campaigns and how they have been able to satisfy their customer’s needs. Good choice of words and phrases is very important for catching the attention of internet users and thus increasing traffic. If suitable choice of words is done then search engines will retrieve those respective pages more. References Borok, A n.d., 5 Common Habits That Cause Failure in Online Businesses, viewed 28th July 2010, Burns, E 2005, Online Retail Growth Robust, E-commerce Guide, viewed 28th July 2010, Cao, M, Zhang, Q, Seydel, J 2005, ‘B2C e-commerce web site quality: an empirical examination’, Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 105(5), pp: 645-661 Chris, C 2010, Reasons to Have a Facebook Page and Ways to Make it Better, viewed 28th July 2010, Dholakia, N, Pandya, A 2002, Conceptualising B2C Businesses as Services, viewed 27th July 2010, Gueye, B, Ziviani, A, Crovella, M, Fdida, S 2006, ‘Constraint-Based Geolocation of Internet Hosts’, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, Vol. 14, No. 6. Kerner, SM 2005, Retail E-Commerce Growth Outpacing the Pack, E-commerce Guide, viewed 28th July 2010, Krishnamurthy, S, Singh, N 2005, ‘The international e-marketing framework (IEMF): Identifying the building blocks for future global e-marketing research’, International Marketing Review, vol. 22(60), pp 605-610 Laurie, B 2005, Nitke vs. Ashcroft- Geolocation of Web Users, Declaration of Bennet Laurie, New York, USA Murphy, D 2007, Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different, Vista Consulting, viewed 26th July 2010, Nicholas Creative Media 2008, Creating a Successful B2C Ecommerce Company, viewed 27th July 2010, OECD 2001, The Internet and Business Performance, OECD Business and Industry Policy Forum Report and Proceeding, viewed 25th July 2010, Phan, DD 2003, ‘E-business development for competitive advantages: a case study’, Information & Management, vol. 40, pp. 581–590 Sarner, A 2009, ‘Defining a primary goal for your B2C website’, Computer Weekly, Friday 20th February, viewed 28th July 2010, Singh, M 2001, A Primer on Developing An E-Business Strategy, Western Illinois University, Illinois Vergnes, B 2001, ‘The Internet and Business Performance’, OECD Business and Industry Policy Forum Worsham, S 2009, Facebook or Google ads? It really depends…, viewed 27th July 2010, Warholic JA n.d., Online paper discusses the issues on how to establish a solid online marketing presence for both B2B and B2C websites, viewed 26th July 2010, YourDictionary.com n.d., Difference between B2B and B2C, viewed 25th July 2010, Yaping, C, Dan, H, Jun, Y 2009, ‘The Impact of B2C Website Design Features on Consumers Purchase Intention’, Networks Security, Wireless Communications and Trusted Computing (NSWCTC 09), vol. 2, pp. 17-20 Read More