LITERATURE REVIEW: BRAND MARKETING WEBSITE

Literature Review: Brand Marketing Website

Literature Review: Brand Marketing Website

1. Executive Summary

Customers benefit from online marketing in many ways. It is interactive, immediate and provides access to an abundance of comparative information about products, companies and competitors. Marketers also benefits from online marketing. For them, it helps consumer relationship building, reduces costs, increases efficiency, provides more flexibility and is in the form of the Internet, a global medium that enables buyers and sellers in different countries to interact with each other in seconds. Marketers can conduct online marketing by creating an electronic storefront; placing ads online, participating in Internet forums, newsgroup or using online e-mail or webcasting. However, there remains a potential for customer abuse, ranging from irritation and unfair practices to deception and fraud. In addition, there have been growing concerns about invasion of privacy, perhaps the most difficult public policy issue currently facing the online marketing industry.

2. Conducting online Marketing

Online Marketing has evolved through three stages. In the first stage, Web sites published the same information to all customers, who received material by clicking on links. In the second stage, firms and consumers began using the Net as an outlet to actually buy and sell products and services. In the third stage, which is till evolving, it is becoming the ultimate manifestation of marketing concept through customization and personalization of products and services to satisfy individual customer needs. Marketers can conduct online marketing in four ways as follows:

(a) Creating an Electronic Online Presence

A company can establish an electronic online presence through buying space on a commercial online service or establishing its own Web site. Buying a location on a commercial online service involves either renting storage space on the online service's computer or establishing a link from the company's own computer to the online service's shopping mall. JCPenney and Eddie Bauer, for example, has links to America Online, Microsoft Network and Prodigy gaining access to the millions of consumers who subscribe to these services.

The online services typically design the storefront for the company and introduce it to their subscribers. For these services, the company pays the online service an annual fee plus a small percentage of the company's online sales.

Corporate Web sites typically offer a rich variety of information and other features in an effort to answer customer questions, build closer customer relationships and generate excitement about the company. They generally provide information about the company's history, its mission and philosophy, and the products and services that it offers. They might also tell about current eve4nts, company personnel, financial performance and employment opportunities. Most corporate Web sites also provide entertainment features to attract and hold visitors.

Business-to-business marketers

Business-to-business marketers also make good use of marketing Web sites. For example, FedEx's Web site www.fedex.com allows customers to schedule their own shipments, request a courier and track their packages in transit.

Creating a Web site is one thing, getting people to visit the site is another. The key is to create enough value and excitement to get ...