Use of internet as medium of marketing

Use of internet as medium of marketing

Now a days internet has become an integral part of most of our lifestyle. “Achieving organizational or individual goals by satisfying target market’s needs and wants effectively by using internet as a medium is called internet marketing.”

Internet Marketing includes SEO and additional online marketing tools one can use to gain the attention of potential customers. Different kind of internet marketing techniques listed below work to reach more and more people on internet and drive interested people to the website and allow to compete more effectively.

Email Marketing 

It is the easy, effective and affordable way to keep customers attract and coming back to one site. This is a form of direct permission based relationship marketing, which uses E-mail as a means of communicating messages to the target audience. An email marketing campaign allows businesses to promote a new product, send information about an upcoming corporate event or share important news about their business, products and services using attractive email newsletter to stay in regular touch with them and build strong customer relationships. It is best way to keep in touch. It is easy to start and quick to see the result with real time reports

Interactive advertising

Use of banner ads, Flash presentations and other interactive media to elicit active participation from recipients. They promote products and services and educate prospects. If well crafted, interactive advertising allows to engage consumers in direct and personal ways. And, they enable a sophisticated dialogue between organization and prospects which may affect buying decisions.

Blog marketing

A blog is a regularly updated collection of content like blogger.com, wordpress.com, indianbloggers.com and blogs.hindustantimes.com. From a business marketing view, blogs offer many benefits. Blogs provide an easy way to introduce fresh, relevant content to the website on a regular basis.

It also provides real time genuine information to the information seekers. Fresh content attracts more attention from the search engines.

Social Media Marketing
Social Media such as Facebook, twitter, Linkedin, Google+, etc are emerging as big markets. There are sponsored pages on facebook of different companies, groups and individuals. Facebook flash their ads on individual member’s profile according to their demography when the user click or like these pages facebook is paid and the individual’s information is accessible to the sponsor. Sponsors also run many contests and activities to gain attention or clicks.

Search Engine Optimization

It is the process of bringing business name on the first page of search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. All of the Internet users use search engines as that is the primary method to find information/product or services online. Statistics Says: More than 8 out of 10 internet users look on search engines to find product or services they want to buy and 80% of searchers clicks on first page result on Google. So Search Engine Optimization is definitely worth the effort for all the websites those are serious about their business because customers are now looking online for service.

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising

With this the keywords one believes prospects would type in the search bar when looking for similar products or services. For example, if one sell sofas, he would bid on the keyword "sofa", hoping a user would type those words in the search engine, see his ad, click it and buy. These ads are called sponsored links or sponsored ads and typically appear next to the natural (also known as “organic”) results on a search page. Money is paid for the ad only when the user clicks on it. Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) are currently the largest PPC providers. 

Here are some reasons that give an insight about why most of the businesses are using internet as a medium of marketing:

1.  More Visibility- Digital marketing makes it quick and easy for prospective and existing customers to find business, Product or Services.

2.  Brand growth- With the rise in social media, customers can now connect with a brand on a personal level.

3.  Less turnaround time to implement- As compared to the other marketing techniques, internet marketing can be implemented in less turnaround time.

4.  Highly monitored and Measurable results - The success of a web campaign can be easily monitored or measured by the traffic generation, number of clicks etc.

5.  Focus on target consumers- Digital Marketers can design their online marketing techniques targeted towards their potential consumers(who can vary by age group, education, profession, sex, location etc).

6.  Cost Effective- Digital marketing is most cost effective media to market product, services or brand online.

Marketing - Understanding Customer

Customer is the central point of all marketing activities. Manufacturers are producing those products which are needed by the customers. As the consumer behaviour differ from person to person the manufacturer must understand it. Knowledge of the buying motives of consumers is essential for a marketer/manufacturer, because it is buying motives that prompt the buyer to purchase. These motives may be food and drink, fear, bargain, etc. Consumer behaves in a particular manner as directed by his inner motive. It is in the interest of the marketeer that he study and analyse the buying motives.

According to D. J. Durian, "Buying motives are influences or considerations which provide the impulse to buy, induce action or determine choice in the purchase of goods and services."

Classification of Buying motives:
1. Primary Buying Motives: These motives are necessary for human life. For example, food, clothes, house, social recognition, freedom from fear and dangers, comfort ant to attract opposite sex.
2. Secondary Buying Motives: These motives are the motives learnt by human being from the society. For example, to bargain, to earn the profits, to collect information, efficiency, convenience, style, reliability and prestige.

Various stages of Buying Motives or Decision Making Process in Buying:
A decision to buy a product is taken after passing through different stages. These stages differ form product to product. A decision to buy a product of daily use is taken with in a second but a decision to buy a durable product is taken after critical study of many factors. Generally, a buyer goes through following stages when he decides to buy a product:
1. Feeling of Unsatisfied Needs: A consumer is a social being. He feels many needs but finds himself unable to fulfill all these needs due to his limited resources. Therefore, he determines a order of preference for satisfying his needs. Determination of such order of preference is the first stage of buying process. A marketer tries to convey the uses of his products to the consumers through his advertisement programmes.
2. Identification of alternatives: Determination of preference order sets the needs of a consumer in an order and the consumer starts to fulfill his needs one by one. He determined the need to be satisfied first of all. Then he tries to identifies different alternatives available to study his need. He frames an opinion with regard to the size, brand, uses, and price, etc. of these alternatives.
3. Evaluation of these alternatives: Now merits and demerits off all the alternatives are evaluated. It helps the consumer in choosing the best possible alternative. After selecting the best alternative, the consumer proceeds to buy it.
4. Post purchase feeling: Buying process does not end with the purchase of product. It includes the feelings of consumers after they have purchased the products. At this stage, attempts are made to understand the extent to which the buyers feel themselves satisfied with their purchases. Such information is very useful for the marketer.

Different environments and their influences on marketing

Marketing Environment

An organization operates basically in three types of environments macro, micro and internal environment. These environments also affect the marketing activities of an organization and they have direct and indirect effect on these activities. Some of the element of these environments are controllable and some are non controllable for the organizations. A brief description of these environments and their effect on the firms are as follow:

The Macro Environment This environment can be studied in the form of PEST Analysis.

1. Political Environment: It includes how and to what degree a government intervenes in the economy. Specifically, political factors include areas such as tax policy, labour law, law, trade, tariffs, and political stability. Furthermore, governments have great influence on the health, education, and infrastructure of a nation.
2. Economical Environment: It includes economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and the inflation rate. These factors have major impacts on how businesses operate and make decisions. For example, interest rates affect a firm's cost of capital and therefore to what extent a business grows and expands. Exchange rates affect the costs of exporting goods and the supply and price of imported goods in an economy
3. Social Environment: It includes the cultural aspects, health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety. Trends in social factors affect the demand for a company's products and how that company operates. Companies may change various marketing strategies to adapt to these social trends (such as offering innovative health insurance schemes).
4. Technological Environment: It includes technological aspects such as R&D activity, automation, technology incentives and the rate of technological change such as how to market products on internet effectively. Technological shifts can affect costs, quality, and lead to innovation.

The Micro Environment These are internal factors close to the company that have a direct impact on the organization’s strategy. These factors include:

1. Customers: Marketing organizations survive on the basis of meeting the needs, wants and providing benefits to their customers.

2. Suppliers: Increase in raw material prices will have a knock on affect on the marketing mix strategy of an organization. Prices may be forced up as a result.

3. Shareholders: Satisfying shareholder needs may result in a change in tactics of marketing organization. Many internet companies who share prices rocketed in 1999 and early 2000 have seen the share price tumble as they face pressures from shareholders to turn in a profit.

4. Media: Consumer programmes with a wider and more direct audience can also have a very powerful and positive impact. It enforces organizations to change their marketing strategies.

5. Competitors: Marketing is all about differentiation. What benefit can the organization offer which is better than their competitors. Can they sustain this differentiation over a period of time from their competitors? Competitor analysis and monitoring is essential for an organization to maintain its position within the market. 

The Internal Environment It refers to the combination of elements inside the organization on which it has full control. These are as follow:

1. Employees: Employing the correct sales force and keeping it motivated is an essential part of the strategic planning process of a marketing organization. Training and development plays an essential role particular in service sector marketing in-order to gain a competitive edge.  This is clearly apparent in the airline industry.
2. Processes: Internal processes and procedures affect the product delivery, after sales services, customer satisfaction, etc. It is a very important aspect in services marketing.
3. Culture of the organization: It refers to whether the culture is supportive to marketing objectives of the organization?

Marketing Mix

The marketing mix principles (also known as the 4 p’s.) are used by business as tools to assist them in pursuing their objectives it was given by Jerome McCarthy in 1960. The marketing mix principles are controllable variables, which have to be carefully managed and must meet the needs of the defined target group. Four P’s of marketing mix are Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Aim of marketing mix is putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time. A description of each is given below:

1.     Products: Products refers to the goods which are offered by the company to the customers. Decisions regarding products includes questions like

What should be the features of the product?

How it should look like?

How it should be branded and packaged?

What should be its quality? And the like

2.     Price: Price is the amount the customer pays for the product. Pricing decisions includes pricing policy, pricing objective and pricing strategy. It answers the question that what should be the best price of the product? taking into consideration firm’s objectives, competition, etc.

3.     Place: Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.

4.     Promotion: Promotion refers to all the communication regarding the product to the customers. Different elements of promotion are Advertising, Personal Selling, publicity and sales promotion. There are various tools of promotion and company has to decide upon the best suitable way of promotion which can yield maximum returns or fulfill promotional objectives.

Marketing Concept, nature and scope, Marketing Myopia

The Marketing Concept
The term marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions. It proposes that in order to satisfy its organizational objectives, an organization should anticipate the needs and wants of consumers and satisfy these more effectively than competitors.


Production Oriented: The focus of the business is not the needs of the customer, but of reducing costs by mass production. By reaching economies of scale the business will maximize profits by reducing costs.
Sales Orientation: The focus here is to make the product, and then try to sell it to the target market. It is basically a push concept of marketing concerned with selling the produced products and making profits, without caring what the customer needs are?
Market Orientation: Puts the customer first and at the heart of the business. The organization tries to understand the needs of the customers by using appropriate research methods, processes and developing products to satisfy their needs. In essence all activities in the organisation are based around the customer. The customer is the truly king.
In today’s competitive world putting the customer at the heart of the operation is strategically important. Whilst some organizations in certain industries may follow anything other then the market orientation concept, those that follow the market orientation concept have a greater chance of being successful.


Apart from these there can be many concepts of marketing like societal concept, product concept, branding concept, etc.

Meaning and definition of Marketing:

According to Philip Kotler, "Marketing Management is the analysis, planning, implementation and control of programmes designed to bring about desired exchanges with target audiences for the purpose of personal and of mutual gain. It relies heavily on the adoption and coordination of product, price, promotion and place for achieving responses."

Nature of Marketing:

Nature of Marketing evolves from its multidisciplinary coverage of activities which is as follow:

1.     Dynamic Process: Marketing is an ongoing activity which does not stop at any step. After finding customer’s needs and wants it needs to develop such products or services which can satisfy these needs and after this there is need to advertising, promotion, distribution, etc the process goes on.

2.     Customer Oriented: Marketing is customer oriented. Marketing is the process of finding needs and wants of customers and satisfying those needs profitably.

3.     All Encompassing: Marketing is all encompassing, it is not a single process it includes production planning, research, advertising, financial management, budgeting, selling, etc.

4.     Integrating: It integrates all the departments of an enterprise be it production, finance, IT, HR, etc.

5.     Creative: Marketing is creative in nature, it looks out for new ideas, views and activities and solves problems or encash opportunities in a creative way.

Scope of Marketing:

Marketing has a very wide scope it covers all the activities from conception of ideas to realization of profits. Some of them as discussed as below:

1.     Product Planning: It includes the activities of product research, marketing research, market segmentation, product development, determination of the attributes, quantity and quality of the products.

2.     Branding: Branding of products is adopted by many reputed enterprises to make their products popular among their customer and for many other benefits. Marketing manager has to take decision regarding the branding policy, procedures and implementation programs.

3.     Packaging: Packaging is to provide a container or wrapper to the product for safety, attraction and ease of use and transportation of the product.

4.     Channels of Distribution: Decision regarding selection of most appropriate channel of distribution like wholesaling, distribution and retailing is taken by the marketing manager and sales manager.

5.     Sales Management: Selling is a part of marketing. Marketing is concerned about all the selling activities like customer identification, finding customer needs, persuading customer to buy products, customer service, etc.

6.     Advertising: Advertisement decisions like scope and time of advertisement, advertisement message, selection of media, etc comes into marketing.

7.     Finance: Marketing is also concerned about the finance, as for every marketing activity be it packaging, advertising, sales force budget is fixed and all the activities have to be completed with in the limit of that budget.

8.     After Sales services: Marketing covers after sales services given to customers, maintaining good relationships with customers, attending their queries and solving their problems.

Marketing Myopia

Marketing Myopia is the short sighted and inward looking approach to marketing that focuses on the needs of the firm instead of defining the firm and its products in terms of the customers’ needs and wants. Such self centered firms fail to see and adjust to the rapid changes in their markets and despite their previous eminence falter, fail and disappear. This concept was given by Theodore C Lewitt.

Its theme is that the vision of most organizations is too constricted by a narrow understanding of what business they are in? By the influence of this concept many oil companies redefined their business as “energy” instead of just “petroleum”.