Chapter 8 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

Internet Marketing News Analysis

Source:http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=25869




What I Learned:
This article is about the fact that consumers are spending considerable amounts of time looking at items on-line, with notable impact on the apparel and beauty departments. Some web sites, such as Fire mountains Gem Web site, boasts the highest average for consumers spending on their site, with an average of 40 minutes per shopper. Ebay still holds the lead for the top on-line apparel shopping destination with 10.12 million shoppers last year. This is down 10% from the year before, but is still a gigantic number. It just goes to show that the internet is still an exploding trend, and people are demanding the accessibility to be able to shop at home. I think this means we as consumers will only see more and more of this internet selling, and for those smaller companies who chose not to have a page on-line, they may not be able to compete in todays tech savvy lifestyles.






Reflections:
Chapter eight is about the importance of retaining customers after acquisition. The book says it costs 7-10 times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. I guess this is where the 80/20 rule comes into play. 80% of a business is done by 20% of the clientel. The book also goes on to say that while a happy customer will tell five people about their experience, an unhappy customer will tell nine. Thats a colossal amount, especially when reducing infractions by as little as 5% can increase profits from anywhere to 25%-85%.
The process of Customer Relationship management is said to be two-fold. Marketers must realize that relationship marketing requires significant changes in the way that marketing is done. They must focus more on the on going dialog between them and their customers and less on promotional campaigns. Secondly, the relationship must be treated and thought of as an ongoing process, not just a bunch of steps leading to a sale. This idea is going to lead to a series of new marketing techniques to help companies to better understand their customers.
Targeting, Personalization and Customization seem to be the key in this emerging customer relationship. Targeting is important to determine who is a valid prospect for acquisition or business. This comes in very nicely in marketing to make sure you are getting the right message across to the right people. Personalization involves creating special marketing content and is one of the fastest growing marketing techniques. It is used to break through all the clutter and try to reach a small target market. Customization is new products and services, made to fit that of an individual customer. People like to be able to customize their things, and companies have caught a hold of this. More and more we see information asked of us when we visit and open web pages. I see this as only the beginning of this trend. Information that we think is small unimportant stuff, for example when we fill out an application for a customer rewards program, is being used to target market products and services to us in a very big way. In a world where everything is so fast paced, people really still want to be treated as people, with respect. Companies are learning that if they are not customer friendly, they will be passed up for another business that is.