How the Internet has Affected Marketing

How the Internet has Affected Marketing

How the Internet has Affected Marketinghttp://writers-corp.net

            The internet has highly affected the business process worldwide, and the external communication of organizations, normally referred to as marketing.  The marketing process of an organization is the passing information about products and organization objectives to the customers, prospects and other organizations. The marketing activities of a company are normally directed towards the identification of customer’s needs, then designing, promoting and selling products and services that are meant to satisfy the identified needs (Armstrong and Kotler 24). For this process to happen smoothly any organization involved in the process of producing and selling products should have a good marketing information system, which helps in attainment of a viable market information. The process of marketing has been affected by the internet in a substantial way (Seighalani, et al. 471). This paper analyses how the internet has affected the marketing process of companies.

            Use of Internet and advancement in technology has highly affected the marketing of product for companies. This is due to companies’ realization that there are millions of individuals online daily, who qualifies to be an untapped source of revenue. The marketing process of a company consist of different elements referred to as the marketing mix, which blends four strategic elements in order to meet consumer needs and tastes of the target market. Successful combination and implementation of these strategies leads to successful marketing efforts. The four variables are product itself, price, promotion, and the place (Barker 138). An organization should develop marketing strategies, which includes the four variables in order to place its operations in accordance with the target market needs. The internet has had a major impact on the way organisations apply the elements of the marketing mix, to produce the estimated results.

Product

            The internet has enable companies to pass information concerning their products to customers in different geographical locations. Products come with supporting components like packaging, warrant and emotional components such as convenience, brand loyalty, security, self-esteem and status. The product should be attractive to consumers. An organization should innovate and constantly improve the existing products to gain a competitive advantage over other competitors (Barker 139). With the internet, information and graphical representation of the products are easily availed to the customer for reference.

            The product element are the tangible and intangible features, or attributes that an organization offers to the consumer through the products. Using the internet, companies have been able to market their products through websites and the social media. The companies have been able to display the products in an attractive manner, drawing more customers to order. Some highly innovative companies have gone further and made it possible for customers to customize their products and make a customized order through the internet. Companies making cars such as the BMW Company have been able to do this allow customers to customize the interior of the car before making the order.

Price

            The internet has enabled the companies to communicate their prices to the prospective customers. Through company websites and advertisements, customers are able to compare prices between products offered by different companies in order to settle for a company.  The price of a product is the total value, which sellers and buyers, assigns to a product. Consumers should get a reflective value of the price on the goods or services that they receive.

            The pricing methods depend on the competitors, market environment and production costs (Barker 139). Pricing has been made easier with the internet as the companies are now able to easily know the pricing of the competitor products. This has assisted companies in decision making when determining on the appropriate pricing strategy to use. The internet assists in comparing competitor’s prices to determine the positioning of the company products and the marked price for products.

Promotion

            With the internet, promotion of a company product has become easy, and companies are able to reach high number of targets. Promotion are the organizational methods of communication, in order to offer the customer information about the existence of a product. Promotion communicates the main messages and persuades the target customers to buy the product(s) (Barker 140).

            With the advancement in technology and communication systems, people are able to talk and share information worldwide in real time. Organizations have realized the need to develop means of using the internet to tap in to the market of the internet users. This has led to the creation of websites through which organizations launch products, make their advertisements and accept orders from customers all over the world. The emergence of social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace and Twitter have highly changed the marketing process of companies (Dominic 291).

            Social media sites enable people to communicate with friends from different geographical regions in real time. Companies have taken advantage of this and used the social media as a means of communication to their customers and prospects concerning their products (Bruich, et al. 40). The internet has enabled organizations to create profiles in these sites that they use to post information and images of their product. They also respond to the customer messages and questions through the social sites.

            The internet has made the feedback receiving process fast, and enabled marketing, product launching and selling, which enable companies to increase their market share and sales. This has enabled growth of businesses and speed in response to customer issues. Through the internet and company websites, organizations have been able to communicate product benefits to customers and accept order and online payments from different countries of the world. This has been highly beneficial to companies, as they no longer need to have an individual marketing the product or guiding the customer through the purchase and installation of products as all this information is normally accessible from company websites.

            Use of the internet in the external communication process in an Organization has enabled companies in different geographical locations to share information and Ideas (Shankar 1). This has been beneficial in transfer of knowledge and management of Organizations.  The marketing process-using internet has enabled the attraction of customer from different areas of the globe, and enabled companies to accept and process orders from different countries, and to deliver without paper work.

            Marketing through advertisement has been made more relevant and easy by the internet. Currently, companies can target millions of internet users with advertisements posted in the most visited websites. These advertisements are created with colorful banners and words that invite customers to click at the. These advertisements re-direct surfers to the company’s website where they can learn more about the company’s products (Shankar 3). When surfing the site, they get prompts asking them to make orders or to refer other customers, through recommending the site, or sharing the link of the site with friends.

Place

            This is the distribution channel, which an organization uses in product delivery to the customers. Distribution and selling of the product should be available to customers at the right time, quality, quality and cost. The channel includes processes, relationship and institutions, which an organization uses to facilitate the transfer of product from producer to consumers (Armstrong and Kotler 26). With the internet, companies have been able to take product as close to customers as possible. Through the internet, one can obtain information about a company and their products. Organization also include the location of their outlets or offer delivery services. The customer orders the product, pays online, prints the receipt, and the company processes the order and the product delivery.

Public relations

            Using the internet, companies have been able to do the role of public relations through the internet. Initially, companies used to higher public relations officers, whose work was to meet customers and communicate to them about the company. Currently, the internet has enabled companies to develop and use programs that use internet to popularize the company to the customers. These programs offer information and video clips orienting the customers to the company and its products.

Conclusion

            The impact of the internet in the process of marketing cannot be ignored when a company is trying to sell products locally or internationally. The internet has highly changed marketing in a positive way, making it possible for companies to offer product information to people in different geographical places. Millions of people using the internet daily are free or mind that are willing to consume information about different products offered by companies. It is therefore only wise for companies to exploit this untapped market. Companies have taken advantage and used different avenues to launch and market products online and the results have been satisfying. Among the moat used online avenues are the company websites, social media, and blogs among others. With the current consumer becoming more knowledgeable and getting access to information, it is evident that the internet will continue to take the central position in marketing.

Works Cited

Barker, R. Integrated organizational communication. Cape Town: Juta.Pp. 138-140, 2006.

Dominic Yeo, T.E. "Social-Media Early Adopters Don't Count." Journal Of Advertising    Research 52.3 (2012): 291-308. Business Source Complete. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.

Fatemeh Zadbagher Seighalani, et al. "Assess the Impact of Internet Advertising on The   Performance Of Industrial Marketing Units." Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary      Research in Business 3.8 (2011): 479-488. Business Source Complete. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.

Kotler, Philip, and Gary Armstrong. Cram101 Textbook Outlines to Accompany: Marketing: an    Introduction, Armstrong, Kotler, 8th Edition. 8th ed. Ventura, CA: Academic Internet     Publishers, 2007. Print.

Sean Bruich, et al. "The Power Of "Like": How Brands Reach (And Influence) Fans Through       Social-Media Marketing." Journal Of Advertising Research 52.1 (2012): 40-52. Business Source Complete. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.

Shankar, Madhulika. "A Harbinger Of Change: Internet Marketing And E-Commerce." Indian     Streams Research Journal 2.4 (2012): 1-3. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Dec.           2012.