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What is e-Marketing? e-Marketing is still quite a controversial
subject to talk about, since
no one succeeded to unify
the various theories around
it; however there is one thing
upon which there is no doubt
– that e-Marketing first appeared
under the form of various
techniques deployed by pioneer
companies selling their products
via the internet in the early
90's. The frenzy around these
new marketing techniques created
by e-tailers and supported
by the internet rapidly gave
birth to a new dimension of
what we knew as Marketing:
the e-Marketing (electronic
Marketing). There are many
definitions to what e-Marketing
is, the simplest and shortest
one being formulated by Mark
Sceats: e-Marketing is Marketing
that uses the internet as
manifestation media. A working
definition is that coming
from a group of CISCO specialists:
e-Marketing is the sum of
all activities a business
conducts through the internet
with the purpose of finding,
attracting, winning and retaining
customers. e-Marketing Strategy
The e-Marketing Strategy is
normally based and built upon
the principles that govern
the traditional, offline Marketing
– the well-known 4 P's (Product
– Price – Promotion – Positioning)
that form the classic Marketing
mix. Add the extra 3 P's (People
– Processes – Proof) and you
got the whole extended Marketing
mix. Until here, there are
no much aspects to differentiate
e-Marketing from the traditional
Marketing performed offline:
the extended Marketing mix
(4 + 3 P's) is built around
the concept of "transactional"
and its elements perform transactional
functions defined by the exchange
paradigm. What gives e-Marketing
its uniqueness is a series
of specific functions, relational
functions, that can be synthesized
in the 2P + 2C+ 3S formula:
Personalization, Privacy,
Customer Service, Community,
Site, Security, Sales Promotion.
These 7 functions of the e-Marketing
stay at the base of any e-Marketing
strategy and they have a moderating
character, unlike the classic
Marketing mix that comprises
situational functions only.
Moderating functions of e-Marketing
have the quality of moderate,
operate upon all situational
functions of the mix (the
classic 4 P's) and upon each
other. 1. Personalization
The fundamental concept of
personalization as a part
of the e-Marketing mix lies
in the need of recognizing,
identifying a certain customer
in order to establish relations
(establishing relations is
a fundamental objective of
Marketing). It is crucial
to be able to identify our
customers on individual level
and gather all possible information
about them, with the purpose
of knowing our market and
be able to develop customized,
personalized products and
services. For example, a cookie
strategically placed on the
website visitor's computer
can let us know vital information
concerning the access speed
available: in consequence,
if we know the visitor is
using a slow connection (eg.
dial-up) we will offer a low-volume
variation of our website,
with reduced graphic content
and no multimedia or flash
applications. This will ease
our customer's experience
on our website and he will
be prevented from leaving
the website on the reason
that it takes too long to
load its pages. Personalization
can be applied to any component
of the Marketing mix; therefore,
it is a moderating function.
2. Privacy Privacy is an element
of the mix very much connected
to the previous one – personalization.
When we gather and store information
about our customers and potential
customers (therefore, when
we perform the personalization
part of the e-Marketing mix)
a crucial issue arises: that
of the way this information
will be used, and by whom.
A major task to do when implementing
an e-Marketing strategy is
that of creating and developing
a policy upon access procedures
to the collected information.
This is a duty and a must
for any conscious marketer
to consider all aspects of
privacy, as long as data are
collected and stored, data
about individual persons.
Privacy is even more important
when establishing the e-Marketing
mix since there are many regulations
and legal aspects to be considered
regarding collection and usage
of such information. 3. Customer
Service Customer service is
one of the necessary and required
activities among the support
functions needed in transactional
situations. We will connect
the apparition of the customer
service processes to the inclusion
of the "time" parameter in
transactions. When switching
from a situational perspective
to a relational one, and e-Marketing
is mostly based on a relational
perspective, the marketer
saw himself somehow forced
into considering support and
assistance on a non-temporal
level, permanently, over time.
For these reasons, we should
consider the Customer Service
function (in its fullest and
largest definition) as an
essential one within the e-Marketing
mix. As we can easily figure
out, the service (or assistance
if you wish) can be performed
upon any element from the
classic 4 P's, hence its moderating
character. 4. Community We
can all agree that e-Marketing
is conditioned by the existence
of this impressive network
that the internet is. The
merely existence of such a
network implies that individuals
as well as groups will eventually
interact. A group of entities
that interact for a common
purpose is what we call a
"community" and we will soon
see why it is of absolute
importance to participate,
to be part of a community.
The Metcalf law (named after
Robert Metcalf) states that
the value of a network is
given by the number of its
components, more exactly the
value of a network equals
the square of the number of
components. We can apply this
simple law to communities,
since they are a network:
we will then conclude that
the value of a community rises
with the number of its members.
This is the power of communities;
this is why we have to be
a part of it. The customers
/ clients of a business can
be seen as part of a community
where they interact (either
independent or influenced
by the marketer) – therefore
developing a community is
a task to be performed by
any business, even though
it is not always seen as essential.
Interactions among members
of such a community can address
any of the other functions
of e-Marketing, so it can
be placed next to other moderating
functions. 5. Site We have
seen and agreed that e-Marketing
interactions take place on
a digital media – the internet.
But such interactions and
relations also need a proper
location, to be available
at any moment and from any
place – a digital location
for digital interactions.
Such a location is what we
call a "site", which is the
most widespread name for it.
It is now the time to mention
that the "website" is merely
a form of a "site" and should
not be mistaken or seen as
synonyms. The "site" can take
other forms too, such as a
Palm Pilot or any other handheld
device, for example. This
special location, accessible
through all sort of digital
technologies is moderating
all other functions of the
e-Marketing – it is then a
moderating function. 6. Security
The "security" function emerged
as an essential function of
e-Marketing once transactions
began to be performed through
internet channels. What we
need to keep in mind as marketers
are the following two issues
on security: - security during
transactions performed on
our website, where we have
to take all possible precautions
that third parties will not
be able to access any part
of a developing transaction;
- security of data collected
and stored, about our customers
and visitors. A honest marketer
will have to consider these
possible causes of further
trouble and has to co-operate
with the company's IT department
in order to be able to formulate
convincing (and true, honest!)
messages towards the customers
that their personal details
are protected from unauthorized
eyes. 7. Sales Promotion At
least but not last, we have
to consider sales promotions
when we build an e-Marketing
strategy. Sales promotions
are widely used in traditional
Marketing as well, we all
know this, and it is an excellent
efficient strategy to achieve
immediate sales goals in terms
of volume. This function counts
on the marketer's ability
to think creatively: a lot
of work and inspiration is
required in order to find
new possibilities and new
approaches for developing
an efficient promotion plan.
On the other hand, the marketer
needs to continuously keep
up with the latest internet
technologies and applications
so that he can fully exploit
them. To conclude, we have
seen that e-Marketing implies
new dimensions to be considered
aside of those inherited from
the traditional Marketing.
These dimensions revolve around
the concept of relational
functions and they are a must
to be included in any e-Marketing
strategy in order for it to
be efficient and deliver results.
Otilia Otlacan is a young
certified professional with
expertise in e-Marketing and
e-Business, currently working
as independent consultant
and e-publisher. She developed
and teach her own online course
in "Principles of e-Marketing"
and is also a volunteer Economics
teacher. You can contact her
via her personal website at
BRAINmarketing.net or check
out her latest developing
Marketing resources project
at TeaWithEdge.com |
