Sherri Scott Internet Marketing

Chapter 14 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

2008-05-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing News Analysis

Source:http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006262&src=dp1_home
Men and woman differ on Social Networks
Author: Unknown
Date: May 7, 2008

What I learned: This article is about social networks and the fact that they differ in usage between woman and men. The article states that women generally have more friends opposed to men and that they spend more time on-line nurturing and building relationships where as men are more focused on acquiring relationships.

Reflections:
Chapter 14, The wireless and Convergence is about how the internet has become a key element in todays marketing strategies and it looks as though it is here to stay. When the internet burst into the publics eye in 1996, the consumer adaption rate went through the roof. Consumer adaption is the process in which consumers go through when they are confronted with a new product. Products with high components of technology usually require the customers undergo a substantial amount of learning to operate the new item, as did the internet. Because the learning process of the Internet was successful, people integrated it to become a part of their everyday lives. We are yet to see a slow down of the learning and capabilities of this mighty system.
Technology is taking over our lives in many ways. I couldnt believe when I read about the parking meters that not only call you when your times about to expire, but also have the option of adding monies to the meter. I must agree with the tourists that have deemed this a improvement in the parking experience, especially in the bigger cities where parking is usually a problem. As the book states, " Marketers must be prepared to to meet customer needs for content wherever and whenever they need it.", especially as the mobile environment places more and more stress on marketing systems.
Adaption of new technologies catch on differently in different markets. Because of many reasons Third-generation systems have caught on quicker in countries such as Japan, Korea, China India and even Europe. Some of this is because some cultural environments just have a unusually receptive mind set towards new technology. Another is the fact that a lot of these countries have compact geographic areas with very dense populations. Yet another reason is the way that we as Americans have adopted to the wired internet and are content with the fact that we have easy enough access to it. Although we differ from country to country, it is clear to all of us that we will be seeing more and more technology at use in our everyday lives.

Chapter 13 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

2008-05-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing News Analysis:

Source:http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006250&src=article1_home
Where is Ad spending headed?
Author: Unknown
Date: May 2, 2008

What I learned: Thisarticle talks about how the economic slow down and how it will effect media spending in the future. In 2008 we are seeing a growth in spending, especially T.V. media, and is due to the election and the Olympics this year. Another few reasons that spending seems to be behind the economic stress is the facts that, budgets for advertising is usually set aside in advance, companies don't want to decrease marketing until it is very clear that the consumer spending has made cut-backs, and also companies don't usually alter their ad budgets until they have seen decreased revenues. It is predicted that the total spending in the U.S. in 2009 will grow up to $300 billion regardless of the economy due to the rapid growth of on-line advertising and spending.

Reflections: Chapter 13, Leveraging the Market Knowledge asset, talks about the success of marketing programs and how they have become an essential part of todays business environment. Part of creating programs in todays fast paced world is knowledge management. Knowledge Management helps to deliver information to customer service personnel and decision makers to help ensure that the customer service experience is delivered seamlessly. This requires taking huge amounts of data and combining it into a program that is usable and can simulate the best of the customer service workers.
Explicit knowledge exists in most corporate material. In order to develop a knowledge based marketing system, it is essential to use profiles and the correct data. To do so, you must first locate the relevant material and then to incorporate it into the correct format. Although challenging, it is a well understood task, and the better the qualitative information, the better the results.
The first step in constructing a system is to collect tacit knowledge directly from people who posses it and to incorporate it into the system. It is time consuming and costly. Some parts of the system are not visible and are not part of the workers expertise and some of the information they do posses may just be hard to describe it well enough to be interpreted in a meaningful way.

Chapter 12 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

2008-04-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing News Analysis:

Source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006198&src=article_head_sitesearch
E-Mail Marketing still works
Author: Unknown
Date: April 21, 2008

What I learned: This article talks about how permission based marketing is working. The articles says that e-mail is second only to customer reviews when it comes to influencing on-line purchases. On the other hand, about 1/3 of this studies participants had stopped doing business with at least one company because of their poor e-mail marketing practices. Most consumers only want to receive messages that are only relevant to them and there seems to be a big gap in what consumers and marketers feel to be. Once again it puts spammers in a negative light as they seem to ruin it for everyone by just pushing mass mailings that lack content pertaining to the recipient. This corresponds with chapter 12 in the way that consumers are not always trusting of actions preformed on the internet due to things that have gone on in the past.

Reflections: Chapter 12, Social and regulatory Issues, talks about trust between the internet marketers and the internet's users. The lack of trust on the internet does add up. the book says that 43% of internet users have used filters to block emails that were considered un-wanted and 84% of users have refused to give out their information on a web site because they felt as though it were too personal and unnecessary. The fact that people are willing to take such precautions to protect their information could hinder the efforts of marketers. They are realizing this and becoming more and more concerned.

Chapter 11 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

2008-04-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing News Analysis

Source:http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006193&src=article1_home
On-line Banking is old News. Hello Mobile
Author unknown
April 18, 2008

What I learned:
This article is about the use of cell phones in connection with banking. In the past, cell phones have not been popular with consumers when it came to banking for a few issues, the most important being that cell phones get lost, and consumers didn't want just anyone to have access to their account information. Bankers are now finding that more and more people want to be able to do simple things with their cell phones, such as checking account balances. It is said that by making it simple, mobile banking is to move beyond the early adopter crowd. 61% of todays users would like to be able to check their balances via text message, while 57% want to be able to do it with their internet browsers. Banks are predicting by offering such services, it will strengthen customer loyalty.

Analysis:
This relates directly to the chapter 11 readings in the sense that Marketers need to know how to most effectively use their web sites and stay up to date with what new data is available, and what metrics are needed and how to obtain them.

Reflections:
Chapter 11 is about the fact that marketers need to know what data is available, what metrics are needed and how to obtain them in order to best market their products. In order to determine effectiveness and clarity of an ad, marketers use many techniques, one of them being usability testing. Usability testing is is not considered non conventional marketing research and is exclusively designed to see if the site works in a user friendly fashion. It goes hand in hand with quality assurance and is divided into three categories, concept, prototype and full testing. There are different methods to this technique and as everything in marketing research, the techniques have their advantages and disadvantages.
The Pareto curve is a technique used to show 75% of a sites usability problems in as little as 2 days. It is said that eliminating or skimping on usability testing is a false economy and is essential part of launching any web-site. It can be done throughout the stages of construction on a web-site, however the later in development, the more cost that may incur as changes may become harder to make. Many site creators believe that it should be regarded as an integral part of the development process to ensure that the site has an enjoyable and satisfying visitor experience. It is important at the point of the sites launch to be able to measure attainment of the pages communication and business objectives.
An important measure of the business effectiveness of a site is to measure the number and quality of its visitors. It is an essential way to make improvements and establish advertising rates. Traffic data is usually obtained by measuring activity on the web-site as well as looking at the behavior of those visitors. Hit counters are popular in doing this, and they count the number of visits to the site with a small piece of software inserted into a web site. Coded web pages are another technique and uses a cookie like device that returns an image about the users activity on the page.
However obtained, good internet metrics is essential to devoloping a sucessful web-site. There is almost infanite amounts of data to be obtained and tons of methodologies that are yet to be developed in doing so. Although very complex, methods are becoming more and more useful in determining traffic, audience and campaign metrics all the time. To marketers, it is a must to pursue this though as it seems to be the feature of marketing everywhere.

Chapter 10 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

2008-04-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing News Analysis

Source:http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=26029

What I learned:
This article is about a company called aCemo that has spent the last two years collecting anonymous data from about 140 million on-line customers and 375 retail sites. With this data they select which banner ads to display where by how much the advertiser is willing to pay and how likely it will result in a sale. This company claims to be the first to use consumer behavior to determine which ads to display. The systems analytics also determine what a consumer might buy next. Since they only get paid when a transaction is made, they are very picky about where they are placing their ads. In the event that a click on an ad leads to a sale, the advertiser agrees to pay a percentage to a sale or an agreed upon average order-value. Its no wonder that a system like this has been developed with everyone wanting targeted marketing. I think that this means to us as consumers that we will be watched more closely as to what we do on the internet, and also we will be seeing more and more ads that are directed directly at us using the information they have acquired from our history on the internet.

Reflections:
Chapter 10 talks about developing and maintaining effective web sites. The book says that there are two primary roles that a web site plays in the marketing strategy. One is for a channel for providing information, and the other is to generate sales. Thats probably why the book also states that Marketing is clearly responsible for the important step in the Web development of identifying and describing the target market. More and more of the internet is simply marketing.

Chapter 9 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

2008-04-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing News Analysis

Source:http://blog.clickz.com/080404-144226.html

What I learned:
This article is about super targeted ads , this one featured on Facebook. Companies are now taking information used to set up user accounts in these on-line communities to market directly to individuals. As the article says, Facebook along with many others, "strip-mine" profiles to determine demographic, psychographic and interest based information. As shown in this ad of a career possibility, the idea behind all of this advertising is not simply marketing products any longer. Being able to market directly to consumers on a personal level makes the possibility's endless when it comes to getting peoples attention on-line.

Reflections:

Chapter nine is about customer service and support in web space. As discussed in the previous chapter, customer service and satisfaction is of up-most importance. Lack of satisfaction is costing companies lots of time and money. The unfortunate thing of it is, through out the global economy, the enduring chorus of complaints about customer service suggests that most companies are either not getting the message about customer satisfaction, or are not mastering the techniques to solve the problems. The first step in solving the problems is to listen to what the customers want.
45% of customers responded in a survey that they simply wanted a timely response to their questions. 22% wanted informative content, while only 17% wanted to be able to actually speak to a live person. On the flip side of things, only 39% of companies studied sent a response within the first 24 hours of contact, and only 17% of those had a full and accurate answer. More then 100 companies out of 300 did not respond at all. The cost of poor service is enormous and increasing. It is being realized in two ways.
First off, business' are loosing sales. Many e-tailers can count the number of shoppers who have abandoned their shopping carts before the make their purchases. Secondly, business' are experiencing higher customer service costs.

Chapter 8 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

2008-03-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

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.

Chapter 7 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

2008-03-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing News Analysis

Source:http://www.emarketer.com/Reports/All/Emarketer_2000398.aspx?src=report1_home

What I learned:
This article discusses the fact that marketing has changed not only for large companies and teenagers, but for moms as well. The article talks about how most marketing done to reach moms was done during soaps and on day time T.V. , this is no longer the case. Today more then 40 million woman who spend time on the internet have children at home who are under the age of 18. While a lot of time is spent on-line in parent related activities, it has been found that moms also use the net for shopping, entertainment and search reasons. Two-thirds of mothers research toys for their children on-line. This is a HUGE deal to on-line marketers. If they are to miss the fact that their internet client tel is also the biggest decision maker when it comes to purchasing toys for their children, they are missing out on fantastic opportunities to corner this target market. What this means to mothers is that there will probably be more and better information regarding these toys and where to get them for the lowest prices.

Reflections:
Chapter seven starts off by discussing search engines and their growing popularity. The book claims that in the recent survey 32% of respondents say they "couldn't live without a search engine" and that 84% of U.S. internet users have used them. To me, this number seems low as I think at some point everyone who has ever used the Internet has had to use a search engine for one thing or another. With $5.75 billion dollars spent on search marketing in the U.S. and Canada in 2005 alone, it is no wonder why companies are taking a much closer look and putting serious thought into how they are going to market themselves in the near feature. 60% of large companies report using the internet to increase product awareness while 62% of companies use the internet to sell product directly on-line. Thats not a big difference percentage wise. This says to me that companies find it just as important to get their message out there as they do to actually sell the product. No wonder why we are bombarded with so many ads.
Search engines are more complicated to me than I had thought. My assumption was you typed in a key word and anything relatively close just popped up. Truth be told, when search engine results pop up, not only is it just a small fragment of what the web has to offer, but results are also listed a a very organized and for lack of a better word, earned way. The book breaks it down when it says their are three basic components of a search engine. A crawler which searches the web, moving from one link to another, an index which organizes the content sent back to it, and a query processor that transmits the index and returns with the search engine results. The value of a search engine is based on the relevance of the results, with Google being the search results leader. While a lot of search results produce organic results, some of them are there because companies paid to have them displayed.
Paid placement is set up to be easy for the average marketer to be able to place an ad anywhere they choose. These ads are usually of short copy and do some type of bidding to acquire appropriate key words. It is recommended that at least twenty keywords are listed for each ad. Key words are an essential part of directing consumers to marketers pages, so they are usually well thought out and relevant to the product. The web increases in size by hundreds of web pages daily. Because of this, marketers are working harder then ever to get their messages across to us as consumers. If this means they are willing to research and analyze the web at a granular level, so be it. No wonder, when $166 billion is being spent annually and the rate is growing like a wild fire.

Chapter 6 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

2008-03-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing News Analysis

Source http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=25640

What I learned

This article talks about the fact that marketers feel as though they don't know their customers. In a recent survey taken,nearly half of marketers said they rate their customer as fair or poor. Despite the fact that 56 % of marketers agree that personalized marketing messages are much more effective then undifferentiated mass marketing, 43.5% of those companies reported a low level of personalized communication with customers. Because of this information,many marketers are planning on increasing their spending on personalization by 10% or more. To us as consumers, I think this means we will be seeing a lot more surveys, Behavioral and contextual advertising, along with new ways for companies to stand out from what the article calls a sea or unrelated marketing campaigns.

Reflections:
Chapter six talks about how the Internet has become a consumer controlled media. Blogs and web page creations are not just for teenagers looking to socialize and pass time any longer,but also have become a staple of communication among adults as well as business'. One Blog service reported more then 23 million blogs in 2005 with more being created daily. Because of all this time and energy being spent on line, marketers are having to find new and creative ways to get their messages across. More and more they are advertising on blogs,which not only stands out from the traditional methods of advertising, but is also able to be a very highly segmented and targeted task. It is now becoming more and more easy to reach not only adult consumers,but also teenagers in this complex communication environment.
With the interactivity and track ability of the web,media planners have been able to fine tune their marketing skills. They are able to market to the smallest groups of consumers using the information they have obtained from the users previous Internet use. This allows marketers to communicate individualized offers and messages to certain consumers. This presents many opportunity's to get a message across and while some don't agree with it,it has become so popular many companies are spending time and dollars to figure out exactly how to reach the Internet consumer.
One way of targeting consumers is called contextual advertising. This is where ads are delivered based on the content of a web site a consumer is viewing. This is done by examining content and keywords a viewer is looking at. From there companies are able to place ads, or pop ups onto the screen and is based on the nature of the content that is being viewed at that exact moment. It varies from Behavioral advertising in the fact that it is just kind of thrown out there at consumers randomly and is mainly sold on the basis of keywords, to which viewers are more then likely to just be browsing.
Behavioral Advertising is based on the consumers Internet behavior,past and present. It has more to do with a combination of what the viewer has been looking at opposed to what they have just browsed through. Many companies have reported success stories in the use of behavioral marketing. Some,such as American Airlines have boasted a viewership of ads to be 115% higher when targeted to specific consumers. It is also said to be 25% cheaper to reach target markets opposed to just throwing ads in any ones direction. The possibility's with this are endless, and while some may argue it is an invasion of privacy I think it is defiantly here to stay.

Chapter 5 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

2008-02-28T18:20:00.000-08:00

Internet Marketing News Analysis

Source: http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=25531

What I learned:
This article is about how the NHL is capturing information about their fans, and using it to market things to them. The article states that fans are anywhere from 50%-300% more likely to respond to something that has their team name on it, as it seems to be some sort of emotional attachment for them. The NHL has also been negotiating with companies that sponsor them, to share information about its consumers. In the past year, the customer data-base has grown 40% and although they do not post sales, the NHL says they too are up by about 35%. One more marketing technique they are using is to list web pages that fans can use, right in their direct mail catalog. This way fans can order what ever they want, right off the internet. This just goes to show how companies are finding more and more ways to make money and fill the need for what we as consumers have created with the internet and its shopping compatibilities. The more we shop, the more they are going to try to market directly to us.

Reflections:

Chapter five talks about understanding the internet consumer. The internet has gone from a service used by scientists and "geeks" to a product fueled powerhouse. The rapid speed of change of this technology makes understanding the internet consumer very difficult. It also has had a huge effect on younger internet users, most children have more knowledge of how the net works then their parents do. Because of the rate of growth, the dynamics of the web have not only changed greatly, but any statistic is usually out-dated before it can be printed. Because of this, companies are working hard to understand and stay ahead of consumer behavior.
It is estimated that in the U.S. alone, e-commerce retail will grow from $172 billion in 2005 to $329 billion in 2010. This adds up to be a 14% compounded annual growth rate. These numbers are growing just as rapidly in other countries as well. Going hand in hand with shopping, people are using the internet to also search for what they are looking to buy. The book says that search plays a role in roughly half of on-line purchases and that over half of the searches were done at least two weeks in advance. I find this statistic to apply to my own shopping habits. What better way to shop around and make sure your getting the best deals, then being able to compare products and companies all over the world, then from the comfort of your own home. The book also says that travel sites are most influenced by web-sites. Is there really any other way to plan a trip or find a flight any more?
Because of all the consumption on the internet, marketing research has moved in that direction with a vengeance. There are significant advantages to on-line marketing research. Its quicker, cheaper and has way better access to larger groups of people. It is also able to collect more in depth information then regular mail surveys, and more convent (thus more likely to be completed by) the respondent. Whether first-hand, secondary or even third party data, market researchers have defiantly found a great way to monitor customer interactions as well as buying patterns and habits. This essentially leads to stronger target marketing and even product development research. It is here to stay.

Chapter4 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

2008-02-20T21:41:00.000-08:00

Internet Marketing News Analysis

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/02/technology/videousedcars.biz2/index.htm?postversion=2007100307

What I Learned:
This article is about how people have gone from buying used cars on a car lot to posting videos of them for anyone who is looking. Hotswap was invented by Luke Thomas who was interested in buying a car on-line, but was disappointed when all the vehicles seemed to look better in their photos then in real life. Launched in March, it is estimated to have over 11,000 listing by the end of the year and about $2 million in funding from venture firm Kinsey Hills group. The article states that video is what people want, and goes on to say that Americans spent $358 billion on used cars just last year, with 1/4 of cars being bought on the internet. The Hotswap listing is free and allows users to see every scratch, dent and imperfection on the autos with the use of the video camera.

Analysis:
What will they think of next? The internet is evolving at a speed fast enough to keep up with almost every demand and need that a consumer could have. Companies are willing to fund and promote these new ideas because they have proven effective in reaching huge target markets and filling a need. I bet if I told my parents ten years ago that I would be buying a car on-line, they would have checked my head. Now, it seems as though a great way to save time and energy, all the while finding what ever it is that you truly want.

Reflections:
Chapter four teaches us that the internet is a direct response medium, that allows interactivity more then any other marketing medium. Marketing has four characteristics (known as the four I's) that are described as being powerfully affected by the internet and its capabilities. These qualities are, Interactive, Information-driven, Immediate and Involving and have changed the way we do business.
Being Interactive allows marketers to initiate two way conversations or communications between the consumers and themselves. Being Information-driven allows marketers to inform consumers on mass levels, contacting and notifying them of new products, services or even changes to existing things. Being Immediate allows marketers to reply to consumers quickly and efficiently and is much more cost effective then trying to manage call centers or mail rooms. Getting consumers interested has become somewhat of a chore in todays heavily marketed environment, the internet offers a great way to get consumers involved with promotions and incentives. Combining brand marketing with direct response motivates consumers to act on what they have seen.
Front end and back end marketing are an important part of the marketing process. Front end activities are things that happen before or during a sale. Coupons for example are front end marketing. Back end marketing is everything that occurs after the sale, including fulfillment and customer service. It is unfortunate but Internet marketers have seem to forgotten the back end part of marketing. This is a result of not having to deal with consumers directly or in large numbers. This is a big deal because over time it will affect customer retention, and we are all aware of the 80-20 rule.
Direct response programs are a great way for marketers to track consumer trends and habits. The internet allows an advantage when it comes to direct response over traditional mass media in many ways. For one, its way more cost effective. Another plus is the fact that if it is not reaching markets in the way it was intended, it can simply be deleted or fine tuned. One way to conduct a marketing test is to do a A/B split where one group of consumers is divided into two groups. Different marketing is sent to the two groups and essentially seeing who reacts to what. This is a great way to acquire psychographics to better target your market, hoping to stick out from all the clutter.

Chapter 3 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

2008-02-13T20:35:00.000-08:00

Internet Marketing News Analysis

Source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1005929

What I learned:
This article is about the percent of the worlds population who are currently Internet users, a whopping 17.5% as of 2007. It is predicted that by the year 2012 that number will rise to 24.5% of the human race that will access the internet at least once a month. It is said that 2008 will be the year that China will over take the U.S. as the most populous Internet nation in the world, with over 500 million internet users. As of now, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries lead the word in internet penetration with 80% of their population being internet users. Over the next five years the world will look to countries such as, China, Russia, India, Brazil and Mexico to be the primary drivers for Internet user growth.

Analysis:
This world wide Internet growth over the next four years means a great many things to internet marketing. For one, it means that companies are going to work harder and spend more money to reach internet users while marketing their products. Another conclusion from this information would be that the technology being used today will probably start to change at an even faster rate then it currently is, not only to keep up with everyone, but also to keep existing internet users hooked. One more thing that I gather from this article is that with so many other countries driving the internet growth, we will come to see many new services and products introduced to us via Internet!

Reflections:

Reading chapter three taught me the importance of a Business Model. The book says the Business Model is essentially " a unique configuration of elements that make up the business' goals, strategies, processes, technology's and structure. This is important for many reasons. The most important of those being to determine cost structure and profit potential. What good is it to market something if there is no chance of making a profit. The second most important use for this is to determine a market segment or figure out who is going to use your product for what. This conclusion leads to where and to whom you will market your product.
With so many business' turning to the internet to sell products, the business model is as important as ever. First off, companies must look around to see if they can sell products at or below competition on-line. Secondly, they need to make sure they define and market to the correct target market to ensure that they are standing out from all the rest of the clutter and competition. Things like formulating a competitive strategy are becoming more and more essential not only to the retail markets but increasingly so to the on-line market.
Another thing that caught my attention while reading this chapter was the segment on marketplaces. E-bay does $1,000 dollars in transactions EVERY second?!?! This is HUGE! It is just another testament to the fact that we are living in a computer based world. With local sites in twenty two countries and a partnership in Latin America, we had better be paying attention to this huge trend of shopping from home. The site offers not only a chance for people to shop, but also a gigantic sellers market. They have everything a seller may need to be as profitable as possible, from tips to how to be a great seller to incentives to sell as much stuff as you possibly can.
This just goes to show the effect of cause and demand. When E-bay began, people were selling their actual automobiles under the toy car heading. Seeing the need for a auto sales market, E-bay launched a section dedicated to just that. Today the auto sales category is worth 30% of the sales on the entire site. Once again it just goes to show that the internet is here, people like it for many reasons, and if companies want to stand out or get ahead, the better get a good concept of and hold on internet marketing.

Chapter 2 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

2008-02-08T11:34:00.000-08:00

Chapter 2 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

Internet News Analysis

Source: http://blog.clickz.com/080208-102255.html

What I learned:
The auto maker, Mazda, has just introduced a new "video game" to You Tube called The Drive. The Drive was inspired by actual Mazda Drivers who posted footage of them driving on the popular site, You Tube. It allows uses to choose and customize between two of their new cars, for what they call the "immersive on-live driving experience, and allows divers to pick everything from the type of road the want to travel on, the the type of music. It is intended to target drivers with a sport car driver mentality.

Analysis:
This relates Internet marking in the fact that even auto makers are having to find their "nitch" on the internet. In the readings from this week, I learned how very important it is for companies to be able to stand out from their competition, and I believe that with this, Mazda is doing just that.

Reflections:

One thing that I learned from the lesson this week was that I defiantly take the internet and its contents for granted. The amount of thought and time that goes into say, Dells Internet Chain, is tremendous. In our day and age of immediate results and constant change, the internet has defiantly revolutionized the way we work and live on every level. Much of this new technology is quietly adapted into our everyday lives, and although we may notice a slight difference in the way we live, I dont think we realize the impact it has made. Take for example the RFID system. Not only is it being used in stores for inventory and marketing proposes, but looked at the way it has changed the everyday commute with a little thing they call the I-Pass. How excellent is it to be able to pay a toll with out having to stop?! I can only imagine the near feature when we will be able to grocery shop like that.
Another thing that caught my attention is the fact that not only has internet marketing taken over on a corporate level, but they are now writing self-help books on how to actually do it at home your self. Something so complicated that many of us dont even attempt, yet so easy to figure out that that it can be taught in a 204 page book. Just as Im sure the creators of the internet had no idea the impact of it would be, we are yet to see the peak of the marketing techniques in store for us.

Chapter 1 Internet Marketing News Analysis and Reflections

2008-01-31T22:06:00.000-08:00

Internet Marketing News Analysis
Source:
http://blog.clickz.com/080130-220600.html
What I Learned:
In reading this article, I learned that The Wall Street Journal On-line, NBC Universal and CNET Networks have teamed together with Loomia to create a application called SeenThis. SeenThis will allow social network users such as facebook to follow and send links from the various contributors to specific articles and content. The application is hoping to avoid blowback about privacy concerns like the previous application have, stating that it has an "opt-in" component necessary to use it. Loomia is hoping to help readers promote the "have you seen this" aspect of social Net-working.
Analysis:
This relates directly to Internet Marketing in the fact that even the major U.S. newspapers are finding a new way to Market themselves by means of this mass communication system we are calling "Social Net-Working".

Chapter 1 Reflections
One thing I learned in chapter 1 that I found to be very interesting was just how many people use the internet daily and what exactly they are using it for. With 64% of Americans feeling as though their daily lives would be affected if they weren't able to access the internet, and 73% of Americans who use the internet on a daily basis, it just goes to show how very quickly technology can take hold and change our lives. In just fifty years, the internet has gone from something developed for Military purposes to something over half of all Americans think they basically could not do without. From shopping to seeking medical advice, even do it your self projects, I bet DARPA never imagined a world like this.
It was also very interesting to me to learn that it caught on so quickly in the business world that it created a small epidemic, the demand was far greater than the technology. Once the technology caught up and the "bubble burst" the internet continued to and still continues to evolve and grow in ways no one thought possible. With $2.3 trillion in business to business sales estimated in 2004, the internet has not only changed our personal lives, but also the way business are marketing themselves and doing business. On-line advertising dollars are being spent in great amounts by both major and smaller companies, with manufacturers such as Lexus finding that 70-80% of luxury car shoppers are using the internet as a way of researching products (cars). With online advertising revenues reaching $12 billion in 2005 alone, it is no wonder they are working on a new Internet2 network, said to be 100 times faster.
With personal computer and internet use constantly growing, one thing I'm sure we can expect to continue to see is new and inventive ways for companies to try to get their message across. With Wal-Mart being the top on-line retail site, its a wonder why you open your e-mail account to find sales fliers and promotions staring you in the face. In a day and age where we are known as a generation of immediate results, companies are going to be more aggressive at trying to reach us and get us involved. Standing out as one in a million is, I'm sure, no easy job. It is said that the average consumer looks at a particular ad for no longer then three seconds. This is probably the reason that companies are paying big money to Marketing Agencies who are more focused then ever on reaching the internet market.
The internet has also changed the way buisness work in quite a few ways. One, small business that have until now have been only able to produce on a local level are now finding it easier then ever to function globally. From communicating with customers to creating new partnerships, the internet is defiantly making the world more accessible to everyone. By being able to sit and write an email and send it to multiple users, companies can now spend time and money in other areas that 20 years ago may have been spent on simply trying to keep everyone "on the same page". Another way that the internet has changed the way people do business is by being able to advertise and place products anywhere around the world. Say I want a fine Italian sweater actually handmade by a sweet old Italian woman somewhere in Venice. All I as a consumer have to do is look her up, place an order and as long as she has advertised correctly, a week later I have a sweater that 10 years ago I would have had to travel half way around the world to get! As the internet evolves so will our everyday lifestyles.