Internet: How It Changes Traditional Marketing

Internet: How It Changes Traditional Marketing Nowadays, the technology and telecommunication are non-stop developing. These developments lead to the changes of different sectors in different industries. The appearance of search engines such as Google, Yahoo or shopping online with eBay, Amazon is gradually changing the customer shopping trend and it also changes the marketing models to E-marketing instead of Traditional marketing models. The posed question is what E-marketing is all about. According to one of the most famous Marketing authors, Philip Kotler, Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others. In other words, marketing is not only the activities to make products come closer to customers, it also creating the awareness of customer about the products, stimulate the purchase, consolidate positive feeling, keep tracking customer complain to adapt the products in order to best suit the customers tastes. E-marketi ng is an element of marketing. The prefix e in eMarketing is considered as electronic. E-marketing uses electronic devices such as computer with Internet, interactive ness or mobile marketing channels. to understand completely about E-marketing matter, lets delve into this topic. II. Critical impact of Internet and the difference between traditional and E-marketing: As well as traditional marketing, eMarketing does all things of marketing but in the electronic sectors. However, traditional marketing has some disadvantages that eMarketing can surmount and improve them. Talking about traditional marketing methods, the first names which are considered immediately will be advertisement on the press, radio, TV or publication. Marketing by ads on newspaper has appeared for a long time and still exists. Although that is a long-standing model of marketing but it has some disadvantages that can be easy to list. A newspaper is updated everyday and information will be the same. It means that all the information of a yesterday newspaper will be old and it can not be the trend if its information is not updated. If a company puts their advertisement on a newspaper, it will be valuable or has validity in the day when that newspaper is published. To refresh and make their advertisement still be closer and attracts customer, the company must to pay more for the updated and keep the place of advertisement on newspaper which they has paid for it before. Thus, today, many companies choose eMarketing as their main marketing strategy instead of traditional marketing like the years ago. Take an example of Tokyo hair salon Mano Mano. For an advertisement on Tuoi Tre newspaper with full page and the text of their promotion al programs , Mano Mano must to pay more than 3 million VND but it just exist for 1 day. To appear on Tuoi Tre again with the same position, Mano Mano must to pay again, at the same price. Now, they change their mind and choose www.tuoitre.com.vn with advertisement section to put their advertisement. Although the space for their ad is not the full site of the web but it appears in customer first look. Obviously, the cost for this marketing method is decreased significantly. Furthermore, Mano Mano ad is available 24/7, a thing that traditional marketing can not do. The next popular method of traditional marketing is Radio. In 198 0s, 1990s, radio is one of the most favorite entertaining channels of human. Based on that, businesses chose radio to do marketing was very commonly used. Among the programs, stations broadcasted the advertisement of products from any industries such as cuisine, fashion, technology, etc. However, like the press, radio programs and advertisement on radio was just one day information and need to be updated. This changing leads to the changing of cost. Companies paid too much for their marketing plan. Nowadays, radio is replaced by audio and podcast. Besides, TV is the most popular device to put advertisement on and it can make products com closest to customer. Thus, the price to make ad on TV is extreme high. Instead of choosing TV, businesses can choose video files to introduce their products and it will be shown on the websites and of course, companies do not need to pay much. The advantage of this method is help businesses to reach closer to clients and also help producer to worldw ide their market and potential clients, also. Take example of Vietnam Idol program. This is the Vietnamese version of the very famous program from USA, American Idol. Although Vietnam Idol appeared the first time 3 years ago but organizer still does marketing as best as possible. They made the clip in their own way and put it on the popular website. Beside the main website, www.vietnamidol.com.vn, the organizer also buys the space in the entertaining websites which have the high turn of accession in Vietnam such as www.mp3.zing.vn , www.24h.com.vn or in the most famous networking in Vietnam, Facebook. The other example is YourSingapore.com. This is the website of Singapore Tourism Board which supplies all information and news about Singapore tourism with so many functions for customer to choose. Like Vietnam Idol, this website choose Facebook to reach closer to global customer. In customer side, eMarketing or marketing online helps them to search their favorite products faster and m ore exactly. As mentioned above, internet development has lead to the appearance of search engines that Google is the best evidence ever. Google is known as the best website for searching information in any sectors. People go online and type google.com for news, global financial news and of course, the products. It is the fastest way to look for the interesting goods. To satisfy this practice of customer, almost the companies, suppliers or producers have their own website to do eMarketing for their goods for products. Besides, they also put advertisements on the other websites which have a good accession to promote their products. This is the good way for companies to reach to customer. With these argument, it is easy to see the advantages of eMarketing. It can help companies control the exact number of customer who interest in their products by checking the number of visitor. In addition, companies can also get information about customers ability to pay for a product or their behav ior to upcoming product. Furthermore, eMarketing support companies to make surveys easily and based on that, companies can get customer information, interests and comments that can help them to improve their product. The companies can control the attractiveness customer easily and also ensure business running. Therefore, eMarketing has changed the traditional marketing of companies and also changed the habit of customer. III. E-marketing and Segmentation: Discuss about the segmentation that Internet can change the traditional marketing in the aspect of, as mentioned above; Internet has changed the trend of choosing and purchasing of customer. However, it does not mean that everybody will use Internet as their engine to find the products or services information. It depends on geographic and demographic of consumer. With customers, who live and work in urban areas, using Internet to search and purchase goods is the best way for them to save their time and their money, also. In the developed countries such as USA, Japan or EU, internet marketing is commonly used and people has accustomed with searching online for their interested goods. Based on that, doing E-marketing in the developed countries is the smart choice for companies to enlarge their market and make their products reach customer. Take example of E-marketing in USA. This is the country which is known as one of the powerful countries in the world. With the developed economy and technological development in USA, E-marketing seems to be an important method in doing marketing. The famous website and the large number of customer around the world that can be listed as eBay Corp. at www.ebay.com , Wikipedia at www.wikipedia.com or tourism in USA at www.USAtourism.com can be the best evidences for E-marketing is this country. Although marketing on Internet is very common in the world but there are some countries, where people do not how to use computer, still exist and Bangladesh is an example. Known as a country which has the third Islam in the world and the economy is under-developed. With the per capita income in 2008 was US$520 compared with US$10,200 of the worlds average, it can be recognized easily that almost people who live here have the low livings (Wikipedia, 2010). Because of those low livings, people do not have ability to have the general idea about purchasing online or marketing on Internet. With Bangladesh people, before purchasing a product or u sing a service, they must to try it first and if it satisfies their needs, they will decide to choose it then. Thus, to the companies in Bangladesh, doing E-marketing will be the worst method and they can not do that. Although not all Bangladeshi can not use computer and online services but the number of people who can do they is small and it just happens in the head offices. Thus, E-marketing will not develop in the countries like Bangladesh. Those arguments above are concerned with geographic and now will be the concerns with demographic of consumer. Depends on the age, gender or income, customer will have different identifications and behaviors about marketing online. Normally, consumers who are younger will be interested in learning about favorite online and shopping online than older. In young peoples opinions, internet can support them to search all details of goods faster and the information is updated. Beside that, with younger people, who are living in the developing times, time is very important and all they want to do is must convenient for them to save their time, as much as possible. In other words, with Internet, young people just need to stay in their place, take the mouse and make a search for the term that they interest, then, burdensome of information will appear. They just click and buy, and after that, the goods will be delivered. Customer may be charged the shipping fee or not depends on the location. Unlike to young people, the older has the different idea that internet just show the general information about product. After deciding to purchase one kind of goods, they will go to the store, take a look and touch directly to their interested product and try it on. If it works well and satisfies all their needs, they will buy it. In other words, the older want to choose the product directly that they ensure it will not have any mistakes in general. Besides the age, different gender can make different behavior to E-marketing. Almost the men l ike gadget and digital equipments. These goods are updated and almost of them are advertised on internet that their loyal and potential customer can get the updated information or updated of products. In other side, women, their interest is all about fashion and with this item, customer must to touch directly and try it on their bodies to get the exact and perfect product for them. Women go online and search for the new trends or prestige tailor or fashion designer that they can get the gorgeous ones from. Therefore, to the men, internet can help them to find out and purchase the best products ever but, to women, its just the engine to get information only. IV. E-marketing and Targeting: With the things have just been mentioned above, its easy to see the target of E-marketing or marketing on Internet will focus on the objects which are the younger customers, customers who have the income from middle level, officers and people who do not have enough time to go real shopping. V. E-marketing and Differentiation: Differentiation is how companies make the difference among the competitors. With the support from Internet, many companies build the website for their own. Making differentiation is the action that concerns with products, services, personnel, channel and image. To impress customer who visit website, companies must to give them alternative as much as possible that they can make decision. Besides, companies must give customer the attractive price of products or packages that they can make comparison with other competitors. The more customization the website has, the more different they are. VI. E-marketing and Positioning: Mentioning about the positioning of companies when using E-marketing, it is how they embed their brand in customers mind. Take Apple as evidence. With the very famous products such as iPod after generations, iPhone, Mac or iTunes, Apple has the numerous customer for its own. There are three reasons why Apple can do that. They are well-known with high technological products and services; the innovation in digital devices and user friendly products. Therefore, whenever a new product of Apple is upcoming, it always receives the best attention of customer ever. Today, Apple has its own position in customers mind and its always the first choice in some decisions of customer. VII. E-marketing and Product: With the convenience of E-marketing is the function of leaving comments of customer, companies can learn more from customer comments and then, they can improve their products to be better. In other side, with using E-marketing, companies can support their customer to taste the new products via betas or trials. Take example of Advance Device Lock Pro. This is a software product to protect mobile device from hackers or make them be safe with passwords. This software appeared a couple year ago it has attracted more customers. For people who know about this software for the first and interest to try, Advance Device Lock Pro will give them trial version in 7 days that customer can try it free in those days. After 7 days, if customer is interested in this software, they will pay about à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬15 to have full version. Furthermore, E-marketing can help companies to have the multiview about customer needs, and based on that, the new products will be appeared to satisfy all customer tas tes VIII. E-marketing and Price: In traditional marketing, companies must to pay much for overheads like store, transportation, delivery or maintenance cost, etc. If using E-marketing instead of traditional marketing, companies can save lots of money. Take example of hotel booking online. With the customers information on booking online, hotels can manage the quantity of coming customer and they can be proactive in coordination of staffs, foods and the others. In other aspect, E-marketing support hotels compare their prices to the competitors. Ho Tram Beach Resort is a 4-star resort which is located in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province. In their website at www.hotramresort.com , room rate for a Sea View Suit is US$ 303 and customer can book room immediately after checking the rate. However, the price will be discounted a little bit if customer call directly to resorts reception. The point is, the rate on website is competitive price with other resort in same location. Thus, customer can check and compare the price among comp etitors. The competitive and attractive price combine with the impressive design and services will be the plus point for Ho Tram Beach Resort in customers mind. IX. E-marketing and Distribution and CRM: The kind of online products as E-books, E-consult, E- learning or software reach the world wide in accepted conditions such as politic, technology and infrastructure. In CRM aspect, E-marketing helps companies adjust their marketing offering fit to customer individual need. Moreover, it can understand the changing taste of customer, and then, prepare to launch the new products. Take Amazon.com as an example. This is the world wide retailer with numerous brand names and million accession everyday. To purchase goods on www.amazon.com , customer should sign in so they can receive the recommendation to your choice. By signing in, www.amazon.com can know which product their customers are most interested in. If customer has changed their interest, Amazon.com can also manage that and give them the suit recommendation for them. X. Conclusion: Technological development which specific is internet has not only changed a issue but also the whole world. The appearance of internet and Marketing on internet, E-marketing, has changed a habit in selling and purchasing. Although some disadvantages still exist but E-marketing has contributed to the global economic development and its also the bridge between customer and companies and make them reach closer.