Discover The 4 P's of Internet Marketing Mix

By Richard Lee

Traditionally the marketing mix is co-ordinated so efficient product, price, promotion and place strategies are developed for products purchased over the counter. The internet is changing the way we sell our products and services. That's a fact. Consumers now use the internet to research and purchase products/services online. Organization now needs online strategies to attract and retain customers. The e-marketing mix considers the elements of presenting the marketing mix online.

Online, this immediate tangibility disappears. But, is that a disadvantage? E-commerce sales are increasing at extremely high rates. Why? What does buying products online offer over one to one sales? Firstly there are clear online facts about the product you are purchasing. The buyer knows immediately about product features, the facts, not sales persons assumptions. Electrical store offers clear information on products and their specification, consumers know what they get if not there is a customer service number where they can find out more. The buying process is also customized for returning visitors, making repeat purchases easier. Organizations can also offer immediately ancillary products along with the main purchase. As mentioned in marketing mix section, pricing is always difficult to do and must take into account many considerations.

Traditionally pricing was about finding about your costs, discovering how much consumers are willing to pay, taking account competition pricing then setting your price. The internet has made pricing very competitive. Many costs i.e. store costs, staff cost have disappeared for complete online stores, placing price pressures on traditional retailers. The internet gives consumers the power to shop around for the best deal at a click of a button. Such easy access to information helps to maintain prices within the online world.

E-pricing can also easily reward loyal customers. Technology allows repeat visitors to be tracked, easily allowing loyalty incentives to be targeted towards them. Payment is also easy online credit cards use allows for easy payments. One of the biggest changes to the marketing mix is online purchasing. Consumers can purchase direct from manufacturers cutting out retailers totally. The challenge for online retailers is to insure that the product is delivered to the consumer within a reasonable time. Location is important within our place strategy.

Online location can refer to where links are placed on other websites. Promoting products and service online is concerned with a number of issues. Having a recognizable domain name is first stage towards e-promotion. Most organizations today have some form of webpage used in most if not all advertisements. Placing banner advertisements on other web pages is a common form of e-promotion. Banner ads must be placed where potential customers browse. Web public relations are another approach to promoting online. News worthy stories based on product or service launches can be placed on the company's webpage, or WPR articles sent to review sites for consumers to read. Hopefully this form of online promotion will pull the consumer in. Direct email is a popular and common form of e-promotions, although slowly becoming the most hated my many consumers. Organizations can send e-leaflets to hundreds and thousands of respondents, hoping a small percentage will reply.

To summaries e-promotion includes: Banner promotion, Web public relations (WPR), E-leaflets and having a domain name. The e-marketing mix must work together and support each other if the company is to have a successful online marketing strategy.

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The Trend Of Consumer Purchasing On The Internet

By Ryan Haiti

There is a very big trend shift in the conventional business practices. There are now businesses are coming on the internet or online to perform or sell their products. Despite the increase in use and popularity of the Internet over the last few years, the question of why consumers prefer to shop on the Internet for certain products and not for others still remains poorly understood.

Consumers' preference for shopping on the Internet has not been abundant. Until just a few years ago, the Internet had been relatively new to consumers as a shopping medium, and is still in a growth phase. Lack of familiarity with its use and the risk perceived by consumers in revealing personal information as a part of online purchasing has created uncertainty and wariness about untried e-tailers. In addition, the appeal and adoption of online shopping have been hindered by inferior Internet retail site design and functions. Finally, historical trends have not had sufficient time to accumulate to predict consumer shopping behavior.

The early years of online shopping has been replaced by more realistic and cautious projections of e-commerce sales. While use of the Internet for the purposes of shopping, information search, communication, interaction, and entertainment has continued to increase, the actual figures for e-commerce sales have not increased as rapidly as expected. As online retail sales continue to increase at a slower pace than expected, academicians and practitioners alike are searching for the product categories that consumers will shop for on the Internet. Consumers' preferences for shopping on the Internet may depend on the product type, which will in turn influence the need to obtain product information easily and cost-effectively, or to test or try products before purchasing. In addition, consumers' willingness to purchase on the Internet may vary depending on the attributes that Internet retailers offer for online-shopping (i.e., information and order services, privacy, quality of products, site quality, etc.).

In the brick-and-mortar retailing and catalog shopping literature, the published research indicates that the importance of store/mail-order attributes varies by product category. There is a discrepancy between e-tailers and customers regarding why customers visit a site. Retailers were reported to believe that factors such as convenience, reputation/trust, and customer service were most important, while customers were reported to list merchandise assortment and competitive prices as the factors that mattered most to them. The reason for the discrepancy is perhaps that the type of product purchased is influential in determining which attributes are more important in choosing a retailer to patronize.

It may also help Internet retailers understand which Internet retailer attributes are important to consumers for specific product types so that they can communicate to them with proper messages and convey the appropriate product-related information on their Web sites and in their advertising.

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