| Introduction
Like dusting powder on fingerprints, new e-marketing
tracking tools are out now that make vital information
visible. Certain tools and feedback loops can
show e-marketers which content customer segments
are interested in by disclosing viewing patterns,
which are then automatically turned into rich,
detailed reports that clearly define customer
trends and preferences. This information is gold.
Not only that, it's gold for the price of nickel.
Placing value on learning is not an easy thing
for companies to do, but it's critical for evaluating
the true return on investment of marketing initiatives.
A greater understanding of what customers are
interested in and the ability to use that information
to drive your next communiqué is at the
conceptual heart of customer loyalty programs.
The difference between today's e-marketing capabilities
and old-fashioned offline and online programs
is that increasingly intelligent analytics make
ongoing b-to-b and b-to-c dialogues actually possible.
Accepting this as finally real and valid will
open a new perspective on what constitutes a strong
initiative and will encourage e-marketers to leverage
all the new tools that are making it possible.
But still, quantifying its value in terms of dollars
and cents is a challenge. Call a research provider
and ask how much it awould cost to do a detailed
analysis of marketing trends in your sector. How
much would it cost to interview, say, 3,000 people
and then draw buying behavior trends from the
feedback? Share the information with research
and development and ask if it provides insight
into a new product development. Does it change
what they already had in mind? How much do you
save catching a false start early? Does it give
them a new idea or eliminate the need to test
several different products? How much is that worth
in terms of eliminating needless development?
(Schultz, Don E pg 34- 40)
Integrated marketing
At a recent Association of National Advertisers
meeting, Peter Sealey, former vice president of
global marketing at Coca-Cola Co. and now new-technology
guru extraordinaire, proposed that in the near
future, all the traditional marketing and communication
activities that we have developed and in which
we have built major capabilities will become irrelevant.
In fact, they likely will disappear. Sealey argues
quite persuasively that the three major elements
required creating the highly touted e-commerce
marketplace--bandwidth, storage and processing
power-soon will be--given the current technological
developments and rapidly declining costs--for
all intents and purposes, free to the consumer.
When that happens, Peter says, the traditional
marketer-driven, marketer-controlled marketplace
will be severely challenged. In fact, Sealey makes
the case that both the marketplace and marketing
communication as we have known them for the past
50 years or so likely will simply disappear. Disappear!
And, when that marketplace disappears, many of
the traditional plans, programs and promotions
skilled at developing in the past probably will
become obsolete.
Sealey makes a strong case for this view and
has lots of success stories to support his premises,
but the question is, will the change be total,
or might it be a bit of in-between? Obviously,
given the type of marketing and communications
shift Sealey envisions, many of the traditional
marketing approaches and systems will be challenged.
There is little question that the marketplace
is in transition, but it is transition, not revolution.
Not everything can be sold via e-commerce, delivered
over wires or through a satellite uplink. How
about services or goods such as childcare or dentistry?
People almost have to be there to receive them.
There will be a need for--demand for-things that
require human interaction and traditional marketing
expertise. The challenge for marketing, and particularly
marketing communication, is sorting out the issues
and finding a route to transition. That means
not rushing willy-nilly onto the Net simply because
it is there and everyone else is doing it. The
old saw, "Don't throw the baby out with the
bathwater," comes quickly to mind. People
are funny. In spite of convenience, savings, time
pressure and all the other things that should
push them online, some still want to shop. Some
still want to get in their cars and go to the
mall or the store and jostle, push, see and feel.
Some still want to interact with humans in person.
Some still want to watch television, fuzzy signal
and all. Some still want to clip coupons and carry
them in their purse or wallet, not in their laptop.
While there is little question electronic commerce
is having an impact, it will not destroy the world
of marketing as we know it--at least not immediately.
Also keep in mind that the world works in the
short-term. (: Goodwin, Kathleen pg 231-290)
He does share Sealey's vision that some people
will shift completely to the Web and to e-commerce,
but he doesn’t share his vision that it
will be everything to everyone, even if it is
free. After all, for most people, stores, malls
and shops already are free, if not as convenient.
So what he sees is a gradual reversal of the system.
Historically, marketers have paid media organizations
to deliver their messages and incentives to customers
and prospects. If you look at almost any firm's
marcom expenditures, most of it is spent sending
"stuff" out to customers and prospects
while relatively little is spent on development
of strategy or creative or production and even
less on evaluating results. Thus, customers and
prospects got most of what we sent out for free:
They got television or radio entertainment for
the price of the set and newspapers and magazines
for a fraction of their production cost. He thinks
what Sealey really is describing is a shift in
the cost of information--that is, rather than
the marketing organization sending things out
to customers and prospects, it will be customers
and prospects accessing information, material,
ads, commercials or knowledge from the marketing
organization, and generally at their own cost.
And, if the machines, equipment and processes
for obtaining that information are "free"
or nearly free as Sealey suggests, then the emphasis
shift makes sense for both consumers and marketers.
In short, he sees a shift in the locus of communication
activity from marketing as distribution of information
to marketing in response to consumer demand. This
change will place major pressure on marketing
organizations, most of which are set up to research,
plan, develop, implement and distribute marketing
and communication, not to listen and respond.
So is Sealey right? Probably, but with a few
caveats, all of which revolve around the focus
and capability of the marketing and communication
organization. People’s present marketing
and communication capabilities will not be obsolete
as long as customers still prefer shopping in
person. But will marketing and communication people
have to change? Not for a while but ultimately,
yes. (: Varianini, Vittoria, Vaturi, Diana, pg
532- 600)
Masses of information
Marketing in the Web era is different because
of the incredible amount of real-time information
that is potentially available about the behavior
and interests of customers. E-CRM (continuous-relationship
marketing) systems, for example, help companies
to gather insightful information on customers,
to segment them, and to base interactions with
them on their preferences and needs. This is a
marketer's dream. But e-CRM systems are expensive
and difficult to design, sometimes take a long
time to set up, and are hard to manage. Hence,
many start-ups find themselves overwhelmed with
information that they do not know how to use.
The temptation is to ignore it in the rush to
get their operations off the ground. But in so
doing, they fail to build the capabilities for
monitoring customer behavior and are in danger
of losing sight of their relationship with consumers.
It is only by monitoring and using information
that companies will be able to learn quickly about
their customers' needs, and thus how to convert,
develop, and retain customers. From the outset,
a company should set very specific marketing goals
for the relationship it wants to create with customers
and establish some key indicators that will show
if the business is on track. If, for example,
a key element of the value proposition is the
building of a customer community, the number of
open discussion forums and the percentage of visitors
who actively participate in them are good but
simple indicators of the richness of the community.
If the core of the value proposition is providing
technical information, time spent on the site
indicates whether the company is delivering. If
the site specializes in news, the frequency of
visits is a good performance indicator. (Donnolo,
Mark, Metzner, Marc pg 657- 701)
Given the substantial amount of money invested
in communications, key performance indicators
should probably include a measure of the effectiveness
of media spending. After you have defined the
marketing strategy and budget, you can set realistic
communications objectives: awareness of the site,
the number of visitors to it, and the rate at
which visitors are converted into customers and
infrequent customers are converted into loyal
ones. The site's performance in achieving these
objectives should be tracked. A company might
set up a structured process to evaluate the effectiveness
of its media spending. For on-line expenditures,
it is relatively easy to track the number of click-throughs
from different kinds of banner ads or sites and
then to work out how many click-throughs are converted
into page views, sign-ups, and transactions. On-line
surveys tell you how much traffic off-line media
are generating, or you can commission a basic
advertisement-tracking survey to measure a campaign's
effect on the image of your brand and consumer
awareness of it. The cost of undertaking this
kind of research is usually a negligible percentage
of a company's investment in advertising, but,
surprisingly, many companies don't undertake it
or don't act on the insights they gain. Some 10
to 15 key performance indicators should suffice
at first. From there, you can hone in on problems
and repair them quickly. Companies that fail to
collect the right information, to analyze it,
and to adjust their operations accordingly (and
quickly) will be slow to learn what their customers
want, to rectify their mistakes, and to make money.
(Duvall, Mel, pg 568-589)
Until now, large traditional businesses have
been the primary beneficiaries of integrating
Internet technology into their marketing and sales
strategies. These companies are increasing sales
effectiveness and making improvements in profitability
that most Internet startups won't see for years.
Because the Web eliminates many of the physical
constraints of a company's marketing channels,
such as sales channel reach or inadequate brick-and-mortar
infrastructure, small and midsize companies can
now attain virtual marketing parity with their
larger competitors. It is now a market imperative
that companies compete effectively in the electronic
environment. As you size up your e-marketing needs,
pay close attention to three crucial elements:
presence, customer alignment and relationship.
(Karpinski, pg 23-29)
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