The future of e-procurement?

In the future, some suggest that the task of searching for suppliers and products may be taken over by software agents which have defined rules or some degree of intelligence that repli­cates intelligence in humans. An agent is a software program that can perform tasks to assist humans. On the Internet, agents can already

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What is e-marketing?

Internet marketing has been described simply as ‘achieving marketing objectives through applying digital technologies’ (Chaffey et al., 2009). This succinct definition helps remind us that it is the results delivered by technology that should determine investment in Internet marketing, not the adoption of the technology! These digital technologies include Internet media such as web

E-marketing planning

An e-marketing plan is needed in addition to a broader e-business strategy to detail how the sell-side specific objectives of the e-business strategy will be achieved through marketing activities such as marketing research and marketing communications. Since the e-marketing plan is based on the objectives of the e-business or business strategy there is overlap

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E-marketing Situation analysis

The aim of situation analysis is to understand the current and future environment in which the company operates in order that the strategic objectives are realistic in light of what is happening in the marketplace. Figure 8.5 shows the inputs from situation analysis that inform the e-marketing plan. These mainly refer to a company’s

E-marketing Objective setting

Effective e-marketing plans are based on clearly defined objectives since these will inform the strategies and tactics and help in communicating the strategic aims to the workforce and investors. Strategies are agreed to be most effective when they support specific business objectives. A useful technique to help align strategies and objectives is to present

E-marketing Strategy

The strategy element of an e-marketing plan defines how e-marketing objectives will be achieved. Strategy definition has to be tightly integrated into the e-marketing planning process since e-marketing planning is an iterative process from situation analysis to objec­tive setting to strategy definition (Figure 8.3). Key decisions in strategy definition for e-business were described in

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Focus on characteristics of new-media marketing communications

In this section, we explore the main differences between marketing communications in the traditional media such as TV, print and radio and new digital media such as web sites, inter­active TV and mobile commerce. This section is based on the summary presented in Chaffey (2000). Recognizing the differences between the Internet and other media

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E-marketing Tactics

Marketing tactics to implement strategies and objectives are traditionally based around the elements of the marketing mix. There are other methods for approaching tactics that are detailed in further sections. One approach is to use customer-driven tactics that affect both the design and services provided by an e-commerce site. A further approach to structure

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Dell gets closer to its customers online

Dell is a technology company, offering a broad range of product categories, including desktop computer systems, storage, servers and networking products, mobility products, software and peripherals and services to manage IT infrastructure for large organizations. Dell are the number one supplier of personal computer systems in the United States, and the number two supplier

Focus on online branding

What comprises a successful online brand? Is it an e-commerce site with high levels of traffic? Is it a brand with good name recognition? Is it a profitable brand? Or is it a site with more modest sales levels, but one that customers perceive as providing good service? Although sites meeting only some of

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E-marketing Actions

The actions component of e-marketing planning refers to activities conducted by managers to execute the plan. Questions that need to be resolved when specifying actions include: What level of investment in the Internet channel is sufficient to deliver these services? What will be the payback? What training of staff is required? What new responsibilities

E-marketing Control

The control element of the e-marketing plan can be achieved through a combination of tra­ditional techniques such as marketing research to obtain customer views and opinions and novel techniques such as analysis of web-server log files that use technology to monitor whether objectives are achieved. These techniques are reviewed in detail in Chapter 12

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The new Napster changes the music marketing mix

This case about the online music subscription service Napster illustrates how different elements of the mix can be varied online. It also highlights success factors for developing an online marketing strategy since Napster’s proposition, objectives, competitors and risk factors are all reviewed. The Napster brand has had a varied history. Its initial incarnation was

What is e-CRM?

The interactive nature of the web combined with e-mail communications provides an ideal environment in which to develop customer relationships, and databases provide a foun­dation for storing information about the relationship and providing information to strengthen it by improved, personalized services. This online approach to CRM is often known as ‘e-CRM’ or ‘electronic customer

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Conversion marketing in E-commerce

For managers to assess and improve the effectiveness of their customer relationship manage­ment implementation, evaluation using the conversion marketing concept is useful. In an online context, this assesses how effective marketing communications are in converting: Web browsers or offline audiences to site visitors; Site visitors to engaged site visitors who stay on the site

The online buying process

Companies that understand how customers use the new media in their purchase decision­making can develop integrated communications strategies that support their customers at each stage of the buying process. Considering mixed-mode buying or how a customer changes between an online channel and an offline channel during the buying process is a key aspect of

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Customer acquisition management in E-commerce

In an online context, ‘customer acquisition’ can have two meanings. First, it may mean the use of the web site to acquire new customers for a company as qualified leads that can hope­fully be converted into sales. Second, it may mean encouraging existing customers to migrate to using online for purchase or service. Many

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Focus on marketing communications for customer acquisition in E-commerce

1. The characteristics of interactive marketing communications To best exploit the characteristics of digital media, it is important to understand the differ­ent communications characteristics of traditional and new media. In this section, we look at eight key differences: From push to pull. From monologue to dialogue. From one-to-many to one-to-some and one-to-one. From one-to-many

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Customer retention management in E-commerce

For an e-commerce site, customer retention has two distinct goals: To retain customers of the organization (repeat customers). To keep customers using the online channel (repeat visits). These are similar to the two aims of customer acquisition as described in a previous section. Ideally marketing communications should address both aims. Maintaining online customer relationships

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Focus on excelling in e-commerce service quality

In the virtual world customer service is a key difference between brands. Jevons and Gabbot (2000) have stressed the importance of service quality in determining brand loyalty with ref­erence to e-commerce. They say: ‘ the first-hand experience of the brand is a more powerful token of trust than the perception of the brand’. Research