What are the benefits of Internet Marketing to customers?

The increasing availability of so many products and services on the internet has introduced many opportunities and benefits for customers.

Comparing and selecting providers

The internet allows a great deal of price transparency for consumers. This gives them an advantage because they can compare prices easily between many potential suppliers. Prices are stored digitally in databases, and software is used to search for the best prices available on the web. Some sites provide instant price comparisons, and at some sites customers can join together in order to lower prices. This has the effect of giving online customers much greater bargaining power.

Instead of prices being set by businesses and passively received by the market, the internet is capable of turning this situation upside down. Some sites allow their customers to set their own prices, and at several online auction sites consumers are able to place bids for consumer products after viewing the minimum price acceptable to the seller.

Comprehensive and up-to-date product information

In both b2c and b2b markets, the internet offers businesses the opportunity to provide total product information. Private customers shopping online do not have the chance to touch, smell, taste or sample products; businesses looking for industrial components or business services might not have the chance to make contacts with a range of representatives. These drawbacks are bypassed because of the web's power to store and communicate information.

For prospective buyers, the essential product details are:

• price
• descriptions of features and specifications
• colour swatches
• images
• drawings
• promotional deals.

From a well-designed website, customers can fully check specifications and quickly make e-mail contact with staff. The whole transaction process is quickly completed.

Dynamic pricing

Customers can gain excellent cost savings by making use of the internet's ability to alter pricing in real time to reflect market conditions. The airline industry and hotels are two examples where customers can save due to 'dynamic pricing'. When few seats are sold, availability is good and prices are set very low. As flight time draws nearer, and fewer seats are available, prices increase, depending on seat availability. The website and supporting technology can respond instantly to market changes. The price is constantly on the move.

Online auctions can make use of the same principle. Prices are open and available for all potential bidders to see. As bidding progresses, asking prices move according to the interest that is shown.

Responsive transactions

The internet offers the chance to conduct immediate transactions and immediately have the satisfaction of knowing that they have made a booking. Booking an airline ticket through an online facility offers an easy process and great convenience.

Customer service

Marketers must constantly look at customer needs and wants. Customer service is of paramount importance if a business is to remain competitive in today's business world. Products and services may be very similar; it is customer service that can clinch the business, whether in b2c or b2b markets.

The internet offers businesses a number of ways of delivering improved customer services. Websites are available 24 hours a day. They almost all include links to FAQ pages, 'About us' and 'Contact us' links. These all help to give online customers a better level of service.

Online complaints services exist that can help customers to lodge a complaint about an online product or service. Consumers benefit because they can add their voice to those of other who have complained. This gives a collective view. A fee is paid to the complaints service company, which then contacts the business concerned and explains customer concerns.

The internet offers people the chance to participate in real-time online chat groups. This is especially useful to consumers who can add their opinions and read those of other consumers.

What are the benefits of Internet Marketing to an organisation?

Promotion on the internet spreads widely and is one of the benefits of intnernet marketing to an organisation. It relies to an combination of methods.

• Search engine optimisation - register with the big search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and make sure that the website contains the correct 'keywords' so the site appears high up in the relevant searches that people do.
• Banner advertisements - advertisements for products or services that appear at the head of a web page, often animated.
• Affiliate programmes - placing linked advertisements for products or services on another business' site.
• E-mail promotion - an easy but potentially damaging method of promoting a business. 'Permission-based' mailing works best.

Individualising market attention is another benefit of internet marketing to an organisation. In b2c markets in particular, because a web visit is always an individual choice, a one-to-one 'relationship' is possible. Web technology means online businesses can personalise their response to suit an individual.

Amazon is the best-known online business for personalisation. Based on information about previous visits to the website, the next page makes individual recommendations, promoting other products that the individual customer may be interested in.

Businesses who use the internet can instantly achieve a far wider and more distant geographic reach than by using other means of marketing.

What is ‘disintermediation’ and does it help producers?

In the physical business world a product originates with the raw materials from which it is made. Cherry wood, for example, can be used to make garden furniture. The cherry wood is transported from its original source to manufacturers who produce the garden items. From the manufacturers the items may go to a distribution centre and from there to a garden centre, close to where customers live - the third 'P' marketing tactic of 'place'. This discribes a 'supply chain', which is the way that goods get to where you buy them.

The businesses that work between the original manufacturer of the furniture and the customer are known as 'intermediaries'. Their job is to move, store or package the items to be sold.

With the internet, there is often no need for intermediaries, as many products can be shipped directly to your home. This is 'disintermediation'. One of the most well-known examples of an online business doing this is Dell Computers.

Disintermediation helps producers in a way that they don't have to pay for intermediaries and so they can save costs. And if they save costs they can make more profit.

Does Internet Marketing enable more effective targeting and segmentation?

There are markets for all goods and services produced, otherwise businesses would have no reason to produce them. However, markets do not contain individuals or businesses that are all the same. For example, although we say that there is a market for cars, cars come in all sorts of sizes, shapes, colours and styles. This reflects the fact that we as consumers have different preferences, different budgets, different tastes and different reasons for buying. I might buy a car because I want something reliableto get me to and from work; someone else might buy a car because they want people to know they are a success in their business.

One of the functions of marketing is to make sense of the different groupings within markets. This process is called segmentation. By segmenting markets, businesses are able to see particular charactaristics within them and target products and marketing tactics to suit that segment. The proces works like this.

1. Segment the market by using market research.
2. Identify customer needs within each segment.
3. Target chosen market segments, using the tactics available from the seven Ps of the marketing mix.

Segmentation and targeting online is undertaken using a number of different variables:

• demographic
• psychographic
• economic
• usage-based.

There are some comprehensive sources of web trends and analyses. Three of these are:

• http://www.clickz.com/
• www.nua.ie/surveys
• http://www.webtrends.com/

Demographic

Demographics are about the make-up of your population. We can study population trends all over the world. Another form of demographics is internet demographics and this directly relates to internet marketing. In internet terms, it is useful for businesses planning an online strategy to know how many internet customers there may be.

Potentially, a website gives a business global reach. However, levels of 'internet penetration' very widely, depending on the proportion of the population within different countries and continents having access to the web. To make a well-informed decision about targeting requires an understanding of internet access and availability in different countries.

A number of services give comprehensive data about internet facts and figures. Nielsen NetRatings, for example, provides statistics on home internet use by country.

Psychographic

This kind of segmentation uses lifestyle and personal characteristics as a way of segmenting a market. It addresses the question 'What are our possible customers like?' Using this basis, an online business can blend its marketing tactics to suit the segment. Psychographic profiles of different internet users are bases on detailed research, carried out by marketing services companies.

Economic

On a global basis the economic prosperity and conditions within different countries determine the extent to which e-commerce is likely to succeed in them. A business considering an online strategy that depends on an increasing volume of sales in, say, Eastern Europe, would do well to acquaint itself with economic data about the area.
Usage-based

This kind of date informs business leaders about how the internet is being used in different parts of the world.

How does Internet Marketing help towards the achievement of Business objectives?

When a business makes a strategic decision to create an internet presence, possibly to sell online, management will set objectives for the new channel. These objectives should be specific targets, designed to lead the company towards its overall aims.

Online business objectives could be:

• increase revenue from the ineternet by 10%
• achieve a top five ranking in market penetration in a particular country
• make cost savings of 10%
• increase customer retention by 20%
• increase sales by 25% to 25-40 year-olds
• improve customer response times to a two-hour limit.

Objectives should therefore be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-related (i.e. SMART). To assist in this, the inter offers a number of methods for businesses to gain accurate measurements about how a website is performing.

Does Internet Marketing contribute to or highlight the need for effective identification of new product / market development opportunities?

Yes, internet marketing can contribute to and can highlight the need for effective identificiation of new product / market development opportunities. Because of the rapid explosion of the internet and its increasing (if uneven) penetration worldwide, business leaders today make important strategic decisions about the purpose and potential of an online presence. Managers have to take account of industry-wide factors to decide how effective or relevant the company's internet presence can be.

Web technology expands businesses into new products and markets and achieves significant aims and objectives. This can happen in a number of ways.

• Market penetration - businesses can increase their market share by offering better customer services or promotional information wihtin the markets they already serve.
• Market development - businesses can enter new markets and potentially increase their market reach overseas because of the relatively low cost of advertising.
• Product development - a business can develop new information products and these can be digitally delivered over the web.

Remember, business strategy and objectives are attainable by using the internet to enter new markets or develop products in existing markets.

How does Internet Marketing integrate with the 4 P’s and / or the 7 P’s?

Internet marketing integrates with the 4 P's and the 7 P's through the application of these 4 and 7 P's on the website of the business. When the business implements these 4 and 7 P's in the right way on their website, internet marketing integrates well with the 4 and 7 P's.