VII. Market Communications Online

Report
This class began with a consideration of easyJet as a case example of what websites can do to communicate or promote their products or services to various stakeholders. Among these, the class noted that the site is user-friendly and very easy to navigate, with direct links from the home page. 18 languages are offered, there is an extensive list of FAQs, customisation is possible and there are a variety of e-offers. The company practices affiliate cross promotion, offers links to press releases, and takes seriously its commitment to corporate social responsibility, supporting charities and providing a carbon calculator. The site also has a good section catering to investor relations where it provides annual reports and frequently updated statistics.

From there, the topic of web advertising was taken up. Studies have shown that the individual sees 3000 ad messages every day. Companies are realizing that they need to invest in alternative methods to highlight their particular message, and many are turning to web advertising to do this. Traditional advertising via TV, newspapers, magazines is impersonal and leaves the consumer in a passive position. While telemarketing and direct mails ads are more personalized, they are slow and expensive, and the consumer is still hardly more than passive.

The internet, on the other hand, has introduced the concept of interactive marketing, by which vendors can target specific groups and individuals on whom they want to spend their finance, and which offers consumers an active role through email or 2-way communication. Consumers who are searching online are already behaving in a more active and targeted manner than those watching TV or reading a newspaper, as they are searching with an intention to gather information or to buy. Besides this, costs of production are low, advertising can be combined with customer service, there is more flexibility in reaching consumers, and, with internet-enabled mobile phones, information is available when they are on the go as well as at their desks. Web advertising, furthermore, is not regulated the way TV and newsprint ads are, so companies are able to broaden the scope of their presentations.

Banner and pop-up advertising has been in existence on the web since 1997, but these are becoming less and less effective (the click ratio has decreased from 3% to 0.8% in 2004), as users have become immune to them and do not notice them as they once did. Alternatives include advertising in chat rooms (talkcity.com) or in newsletters (ecommercetimes.com), posting press releases online (Southwest Airlines), associated ad displays (amazon.com), web casting (free news service), online events, promotions and attractions, online affiliate marketing, and viral marketing. Affiliate marketing is the revenue model by which an organization refers consumers to the selling company’s web site. Viral marketing is word-of-mouth marketing in which customers promote a product or service by telling others about it by email, in chat rooms, in newsgroups and in e-consumer forums. SPAM has never been part of the practice of responsible companies. While it is illegal, unsolicited and lowers the overall effectiveness of e-marketing, there is little that can be done about it.

Reflection
This topic clarified for me the ways in which web advertising is revolutionizing market communications. Until now, i had been aware of ads on the web – one can hardly avoid them after all – but i had not understood the strategy behind their use. I see now, however, that the use of web advertising is going far beyond what formerly has been possible through traditional advertising media. Never before have customer segments been targeted as accurately, have advertisers been able to cover such a large geographical population at so little cost, and have consumers had such a participative role in the advertising process.

“Online Exhibit 4.3” of E-Commerce 2006 clearly contrasts the advantages and limitations of internet advertising. The advantages listed there include low costs regardless of location as well as of distribution number (“so reaching millions of consumers costs the same as reaching one”), around-the-clock availability, advertising and content that can be updated at any time, click-through-rates and page views that are immediately quantifiable, logical navigation, increasingly attractive ads, one-to-one direct marketing relationship opportunities, and, as already mentioned, large market segmentation opportunities. Limitations are fewer and include the currently small audience size, the difficulty for consumers when making “apples-to-apples comparisons,” the difficulty of measuring market size, rating, share, reach or frequency, the lack of clear standards of measurement, and the immaturity of measurement tools.

A topic such as this poses challenges for charitable organizations, which is where my own involvement lies. While online market communications options are readily available, it seems to me that this resource remains largely untapped by most not-for-profit groups. Then again, organizations such as Avaaz and Pace e Bene have, with my consent, been using my email to establish a direct relationship with me and highlight current issues; i intend, in future, to pay more attention to the strategies which they employ. Browsing the web, i have also come across eNonProfits.org (http://www.enonprofits.org/about.html) which offers web development for organizations, specifically interactive nonprofit marketing. I want to keep this resource in mind for my return to work in the Philippines.