Wednesday, January 27, 2016

E- Marketing VTU notes

E- Marketing
By
Prof. Prasad Kulkarni
Module 1:
Introduction to E-Marketing
Learning Objectives
Marketing Review
Describe the marketing planning process
Define the marketing concept
Explain the value proposition
Describe the new rules for e-marketing.
Discuss the components of e-business.
Compare and contrast marketing and
e-marketing.
Learning Objectives
Define Internet, Web, intranet, extranet, and corporate portal, portal, and hub.
Identify several e-marketing challenges and opportunities.
Discuss the characteristics of the Net’s two generations.
Name and describe e-marketing models for each of the 4P strategies.
The Yahoo! Story
Marketing Concept:  Meeting organizational goals while serving customers needs
Currently has 500,000 sites classified into 25,000 categories
Currently the most popular site on the Internet.
3,566 advertisers and merchants use Yahoo!
New Rules for E-Marketing
Ten Rules of E-Marketing
Power Shift from sellers to buyers
Increasing Velocity
Death of Distance
Global reach
Time compression
Knowledge management is key
Market deconstruction
Interoperability
Interdisciplinary focus
Intellectual capital rules (Digital City)
Its’ Bigger Than the Internet
Electronic marketing reaches far beyond the web.
Examples:
Email and Newsgroups
Web TV, Cell Phones, and text-only browsers
Bar Code Scanners
Cable Modem and DSL connections
What is E-Business (EB)?
Defined as the continuous optimization of a firm’s business through digital technology
[EB = EC + BI + CRM + SCM + ERP]
Where,
EI = e-commerce
BI = business intelligence
CRM = customer relationship management
SCM = supply chain management
ERP = enterprise resource planning
E-Business continued
EC - uses digital technologies to enable buying/selling
BI - collecting primary/secondary information
CRM - strategy to satisfy customers and build long-lasting relationships; high interaction with customers
SCM – delivery of products efficiently and effectively; high interaction with distributors
ERP – optimize business processes and lowering costs
Order entry and purchasing
Invoicing and inventory control
What is E-Marketing?
Marketing:
Use of 4 “P’s” to meet customer’s needs
E-Marketing:
Use of technology to increase efficiency of marketing
Increases company profitability and adds customer value
The Big Picture
Too much digital technology creates:
Decreasing cultural/language differences
Workaholism; less family time
Social class divisions because of high literacy requirements
Digital economies are interdisciplinary
Marketing, MIS/CIS, Finance, Strategists
Human Resources, Production/Operations
Networks
In order of its relative size:
Intranet                             smallest
Corporate portal
Extranet
Hub
Portal
Web
Internet                              largest
The Internet
Statistics: Forrester.com; ACNielsen
Computer Industry Almanac estimates that worldwide users will reach 490 million by 2002; and the US is estimated to reach 165 million users
In 2001, consumer online advertising will grow only 25%, while email and promotions will grow 100% and 38%, respectively.
By 2002, E-Commerce may exceed $1.2 trillion
15 million virtual grocery shoppers predicted by 2007
End of the Beginning
High growth, but negative profits
Fewer E-Companies truly succeed
Must rely on traditional marketing strategies
Dot-com drop-outs and mergers occurring
E-business drops the ‘e’ as electronic business is the way things will be done
E-Marketing Challenges and Opportunities
Markets
Revenge of the Consumer
Businesses
Technology
Five Markets
Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
Example: www.iGo.com
Business-to-Business  (B2B)
Example: www.amazon.com
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
Example: www.eBay.com
Business-to-Government (B2G)
Government-to-Consumer (G2C)
Revenge of the Consumer
1930s:
Caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware”)
2000s:
Consumers have control
What consumers want:
Privacy
To safeguard their children
Permission before being sent commercial email
Businesses
Challenges:
Quality customer service
Information overload
Opportunities:
Ways of generating revenue
Greater interdependence in their value chain
Technology
Can lower costs on staff and paperwork
Can be a costly investment
Security issues
New payment instruments
Low bandwidth
E-Marketing Delivers
Value = Benefits – Costs
Value - customer perceptions of the product’s benefits
Benefits - attributes, brand name, etc…
Add benefits through mass customization and personalization
Costs - time, money, energy, and psychic
Lower costs through 24/7 convenience and one-stop shopping
E-Business Model
A method of doing business that contributes to the firm’s profitability whether by increasing revenue or decreasing costs
Necessary for models to identify value for the customer
Marketing Mix Components
Product
Price
Distribution
Marketing Communication
Relationship Marketing
Product
Through E-Marketing numerous new products emerged
Breakthrough software, hardware, and services that created digital value
Price
Efficiencies have been manifested through E-Marketing
No need for a sales force with all order processing, billing and payments are transacted between customer and Website
Cost savings return a larger profit margin and lower prices
Distribution
A primary E-Marketing application that creates customer value
New ways for selling and distributing products
Affects all manufacturers, service providers and intermediaries
Models:
Content Sponsorship Model
Direct Selling Model
Infomediary Model
Intermediaries Model
Content Sponsorship Model
Companies create valuable content or services on their Websites
Self-advertising
Examples:
Direct-Selling Model
Manufacturers eliminating channel intermediaries and sell directly to consumers
Known as “Disintermediation”
Infomediary Model
An organization that collects and sells information about consumers or businesses
Similar to a Market Research firm
Intermediary Model
Brokers and agents bring buyers and sellers together but neither purchase nor take possession of the actual products
Brokerage firms
Agent firms
E-tailers are firms that buy products and resell them online
“Click and mortar” stores
Example: E-Toys
E-Marketing Communication
Accomplished through promotion mix elements:
Advertising
Sales Promotion
Direct Marketing
Public Relations
Models:
Online Advertising Model
Online Sales Promotion Model
Content Publishing Model
Email Model
Online Advertising Model
Firms purchase advertising space on Websites owned by other firms
Does not include a firm’s own Website
Online Sales and
Promotion Model
Sampling digital products
Allows consumer to view products before purchasing
Content Publishing Model
A company’s Website
The displaying of a firm’s information about their product offerings on the Website to Internet users
Brochureware
Does not involve transactions
Directed towards stakeholders
E-Mail Model
Three types:
Target Promotions
Companies target users through research and data mining to send e-mail
Reverse Channel
User to firm
Customer service
Consumer-to-Consumer
Word of mouth
Relationship Marketing
E-Marketing is able to build long-term relationships due to:
Online FAQs
Automatic e-mail responders
Customized Websites
Fax-on-demand
Supply chains integrated with the firm’s functions
Model:
Community Building Model
Community Building Model
Website developed to create a special interest community
Users may provide information for products or services
Bring consumer to concise location, making them more available for communication by a firm
Creates social bonds and enhances customer relationships
Marketing Plan Tasks
Situation Analysis
Environmental Factors – Marketers collect and analyze external elements that include economic analysis, social and demographic trends, and more
Market opportunity analysis – This entails a supply and demand analysis along with a SWOT analysis.  The SWOT analysis determines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Selecting Target Market – marketers select the type of customer they are looking to attract.
Marketing Plan Tasks continued
Setting objectives – marketers set the objectives according to the firm’s mission and resources.
Designing marketing mix strategies – Develop product, pricing, distribution, and promotion strategies
Action Plan – Plan the actual marketing plan implementation
Budget – Set a budget for the marketing plan
Evaluation Plan – Continuously evaluate the plan to make sure objectives are met.
Module 2
The E-Marketing Plan
Overview of the E-Marketing Planning Process
How can information technologies assist marketers in building revenues and market share or lowering costs?
How can firms identify a sustainable competitive advantage with the Internet when so little is understood about how to succeed?
Overview of the E-Marketing Planning Process
The best firms have clear visions that they translate, through the marketing process, from e-business objectives and strategies into e-marketing goals and well-executed strategies and tactics for achieving those goals.
This marketing process entails three steps:
Marketing plan creation,
Plan implementation,
Evaluation/corrective action.
Overview
Creating an E-Marketing Plan
E-marketing plan: It is a guiding, dynamic document that links the firm’s e-business strategy (e-business model) with technology-driven marketing strategies and lays out details for plan implementation through marketing management. 
The e-marketing plan serves as a roadmap to guide the direction of the firm, allocate resources, and make tough decisions at critical junctures.
There are two common types of e-marketing plans:
The napkin plan,
The venture capital plan.
The Napkin Plan
Dot-com entrepreneurs were known to simply jot their ideas on a napkin over lunch and then run off to find financing.
The big company version of this is the just-do-it. An employee has an idea, and convinces management to just do it.
These plans sometimes work and are sometimes even necessary but they are not recommended when substantial resources are involved. Sound planning and thoughtful implementation are needed for long-term success in business.
The Venture Capital E-Marketing Plan
Small to mid-sized firms and entrepreneurs with start-up ideas usually begin with a napkin plan without going through the entire traditional marketing planning process.
BUT as the company grows and needs capital, it has to put together a comprehensive e-marketing plan.
Where does an entrepreneur go for capital?
Sometimes bank loans,
Most of the time, it is equity financed,
Private funds (friends and family),
Angel investors,
Venture capitalists.
The Venture Capital E-Marketing Plan
Investors are looking for a well-composed business plan, and more importantly, a good team to implement it.
The business plan should contain enough data and logic to prove that:
The e-business idea is solid,
The entrepreneur has some idea of how to run the business.
The Venture Capital E-Marketing Plan
 9 questions that every business plan should answer:
Who is the new venture’s customer?
How does the customer make decisions about buying this product or service?
To what degree is the product or service a compelling purchase for the customer?
How will the product or service be priced?
The Venture Capital E-Marketing Plan
 9 questions that every business plan should answer:
How will the venture reach all the identified customer segments?
How much does it cost (in time and resources) to acquire a customer?
How much does it cost to produce and deliver the product or service?
How much does it cost to support a customer?
How easy is it to retain a customer?
The Venture Capital E-Marketing Plan
VCs look for a way to get their money and profits out of the venture within a few years:
The golden exit plan is to go public and issue stock in an initial public offering (IPO),
As soon as the stock price rises sufficiently, the VC cashes out and moves on to another investment.
All VCs’ investments are not successful. But if even one out of 20 is an Amazon.com, the risk was well worth the reward.
A Six-Step E-Marketing Plan
Step 1—Situation Analysis
Planning for e-marketing does not mean starting from scratch but working with existing business, e-business, and marketing plans is an excellent place to start.
Step 1—Situation Analysis
The organizational e-business plan: SWOT analysis => e-business strategy.
The marketing plan: gathers information about the firm’s products, the markets currently served, and so forth.
The distribution plan: identifies areas where the products are currently sold and suggests geographic gaps that might be receptive to e-commerce.
Promotion plan information: gives clues about how the Internet fits with the firm’s current advertising, sales promotion, and other marketing communications.
The firm and brand positioning in the marketplace: Internet planners must decide how closely Web site content and promotion will follow current positioning strategies.
The marketer moves to strategy formulation.
Step 2—Link E-Business with E-Marketing Strategy
Marketers need to:
 Review the marketing and e-business plans,
2 Conduct a strategic planning to help achieve the firm’s e-business goals + define potential revenue streams,
3 Create supporting e-marketing strategy for the e-business goals:
A Tier one strategy: marketers design segmentation, targeting, differentiation, and positioning strategies,
B Tier two strategy deals with the 4P’s and relationship management by creating strategies around the offer (product), value (pricing), distribution (place), and communication (promotion),
Further, marketers design customer and partner relationship strategies (CRM/PRM).
Tier One E-Marketing Strategic Planning: Segmenting & targeting
Market opportunity analysis (MOA):
The demand analysis = market segmentation analyses to describe and evaluate the potential profitability, sustainability, accessibility, and size of various potential segments.

The segment analysis in the B2C market with demographic characteristics, geographic location, selected psychographic, and past behavior toward the descriptors help firms identify potentially attractive markets.
Allows the company to select its target market and understand its characteristics, behavior, and desires in the firm’s product category.
Tier One E-Marketing Strategic Planning: Segmenting & targeting
Tools:
Traditional segmentation analyses.
Analyzes of customer bases using cookies, database analyses, and other techniques,
Supply analysis: forecasts segment profitability + finds competitive advantages,
Study of competition to find the company own performance advantages.: strengths and weaknesses, e-marketing initiatives, …
Identify future industry changes.
Tier One E-Marketing Strategic Planning:
Identifying brand differentiation variables
and positioning strategies
The understanding of  the competition + the target(s)
Differentiation of the products to provide benefits perceived as important by the target.
The positioning statement: the desired image for the brand relative to the competition.
Tier Two E-Marketing Strategic Planning
The two Tiers are elaborated in an interactive process:
It is difficult to know what the brand position should be without understanding the offer that comprises the brand promise.
The Offer: Product Strategies
The organization can:
Sell merchandise, services, or advertising on the Web site,
Adopt an e-business model such as online auctions,
Create new brands for the online market,
Simply sell selected current or enhanced products in that channel.
A firm must decide how online product prices will compare with offline equivalents considering the differing costs of sorting and delivering products to individuals through the online channel as well as competitive and market concerns.
The Offer: Product Strategies
There are two online pricing trends are:
Dynamic pricing—this strategy applies different price levels for different customers or situations. The Internet allows firms to price items automatically and “on the fly” while users view pages,
Online bidding—this presents a way to optimize inventory management.
Distribution Strategies
Many firms use the Internet to distribute products or create efficiencies among supply chain members in the distribution channel.
Direct marketing—Many firms sell directly to customers, by-passing intermediaries in the traditional channel for some sales.
Agent e-business models—Firms such as eBay and E*Trade bring buyers and sellers together and earn a fee for the transaction.
Marketing Communication Strategies
The Internet spawned a multitude of new marketing communication strategies, both to draw customers to a Web site and to interact with brick-and-mortar customers.
Firms use Web pages and e-mail to:
Communicate with their target markets and business partners,
Build brand images,
Create awareness of new products,
Position products using the Web and e-mail.
Relationship Management Strategies
E-marketing communication strategies help build relationships with a firm’s partners, supply chain members, or customers using:
Customer relationship management (CRM) software to retain customers and increase average order values and lifetime value,
Partner relationship management (PRM) software to integrate customer communication and purchase behavior into a comprehensive database,
Extranets—two or more proprietary networks linked for better communication and more efficient transactions among firms (PRM).
Step 3— Formulate Objectives
In general, an objective in an e-marketing plan takes the form:
Task (what is to be accomplished),
Measurable quantity (how much),
Time frame (by when).
Typical E-Marketing Objectives
Most e-marketing plans aim to accomplish multiple objectives such as:
Increase market share,
Increase sales revenue,
Reduce costs,
Achieve branding goals,
Improve databases,
Achieve customer relationship management goals,
Improve supply chain management.
Objective-strategy matrix presents the firm’s e-marketing strategies and accompanying goals.
Step 4 — Design Implementation Plan to Meet the Objectives
Select:
The marketing mix (4 Ps),
Relationship management tactics,
Other tactics to achieve the plan objectives.
Devise detailed plans for implementation.
Check the right marketing organization is in place for implementation.
Step 4 — Design Implementation Plan to Meet the Objectives
Information technologies are especially adept at automating these processes, this is why the information gathering tactics are important:
Web site forms, feedback e-mail, and online surveys,
Web site log analysis software helps firms review user behavior at the site and make changes to better meet the needs of users,
Business intelligence uses the Internet for secondary research, assisting firms in understanding competitors and other market forces.
Step 5 — Budgeting
A key part of any strategic plan is to identify the expected returns from an investment.
Returns are matched against costs to develop a cost/benefit analysis, ROI calculation, or internal rate of return (IRR)
Determine whether the effort is worthwhile.
During plan implementation, marketers will closely monitor actual revenues and costs
To monitor of results are on track for accomplishing the objectives.
Revenue Forecast
The firm uses an established sales forecasting method for estimating the site revenues in the short, intermediate, and long term.
Inputs: The firm’s historical data, industry reports, and competitive actions.
An important part of forecasting is to estimate the level of Web site traffic over time.
This number affects the amount of revenue a firm can expect to generate from its site.
Revenue streams:
Web site direct sales,                    - Advertising sales,
Subscription fees,              - Affiliate referrals,
Sales at partner sites,                     - Commissions, and other fees.
Budgeting
E-Marketing Costs
Costs for employees, hardware, software, programming, and more.
Some traditional marketing costs may creep into the e-marketing budget
The cost of a Web site can range from $5000 to $50 million.
Few of the costs site developers incur:
Technology costs: software, hardware, Internet access or hosting services, educational materials and training, and other site operation and maintenance costs.
Site design. Web sites need graphic designers to create appealing page layouts, graphics, and photos.
E-Marketing Costs
Other costs site developers incur:
Salaries. All personnel that work on Web site development and maintenance are budget items.
Other site development expenses. If not included in the technology or salary categories, any other expenses will be here (registration of multiple domain names and hiring consultants).
Marketing communication. All advertising, public relations, and promotions activities, both online and offline, to draw site traffic. Search engine registration, online directory costs, e-mail list rental, prizes for contests, and more.
Miscellaneous. Other typical project costs might fall here—expenses such as travel, telephone, stationery printing to add the new URL, and more.
Step 6 — Evaluation Plan
Once the e-marketing plan is implemented, its success depends on continuous evaluation. The  tracking systems should be in place before the electronic doors open.
What should be measured? The plan objectives need to be evaluated with:
Balanced scorecard for e-business
ROI …
Module 3
E-Marketing Environment
Idol Goes Global
American Idol is broadcast in over 100 countries.
Its popularity has spawned 39 national versions in countries such as Ethiopia, the Philippines, and Russia.
The sharing of popular culture has been enhanced by the convergence of TV, internet, mobile phones, and messaging services.
Idol Goes Global, cont.
Check out international versions that are streamed over the internet:
Music Idol in Bulgaria: http://musicidol.btv.bg/news/6
Overview of Global E-Marketing Issues
The globe is literally a world of opportunities.
Exhibit 4.1 shows that worldwide internet usage increased more than 58% from 2004 to 2007.
Asia has the most internet users.
Africa saw the greatest growth in internet use.
North America has the highest penetration as a percent of the population.
Worldwide Internet Usage   
Ex 4.1
Internet Use Varies by Country
The world’s largest online markets are the U.S. (215 million users) and China (162 million users).
The top 10 countries account for 70% of all global users.
Some smaller countries, such as Norway, Netherlands and Iceland, have the highest penetration, over 85% of their populations.
Top Ten Internet Usage Countries Ex.4.2
Developed Economies
Developed countries are highly industrialized, use technology to increase efficiency, and have a high GDP per capita.
Western Europe
North America
Japan
Australia & New Zealand
Developed countries are ideal for the e-marketing activities discussed in the text.
Emerging Economies
Have low levels of GDP per capita and are experiencing rapid economic growth.
Emerging economies can be found on every continent.
Mexico, Central & South America
Baltic States & Eastern Europe
Russia, Belarus & Ukraine
Africa
Central & Southeast Asia
China
Importance of Information Technology
The internet accelerates the process of economic growth through diffusion of new technologies.
Bangalore, India is the center of India’s explosive growth in software and IT.
Internet marketing differences in emerging economies include:
Fewer computer users
Limited credit card use
Lack of secure online payment methods
Unexpected power failures
Market Approaches Ex 4.4
E-Commerce Payment and        Trust Issues
E-commerce in emerging markets is often hampered by limited use of credit cards and lack of trust in safely conducting online transactions.
Nepal, for example, is a cash-based economy and credit cards are scarce.
For local Nepalis, only Visa, MasterCard, and Himalayan Bank cards are accepted.
In Bolivia, only 2.3 percent of the population has a credit card.
Credit card use is virtually non-existent in Ethiopia.
E-Commerce Payment and Trust Issues, cont.
In addition to credit card usage, e-marketers working in emerging economies should understand attitudes toward online purchasing.
A 2007 study in Lithuania found that 51% of internet users had not made an online purchase because they thought it was too risky.
To overcome trust issues, eBanka, an internet bank, was established in the Czech Republic in 1998 to handle secure online purchases.
Technological Readiness Influences Marketing
E-marketers must deal with daunting issues of basic technology:
Limited access to and use of computers and telephones
High internet connection costs
Slow internet connections speeds
Unpredictable power supplies
Computers & Telephones
Computer access is unevenly distributed throughout the world.
Exhibit 4.6 shows computer ownership data for selected countries.
Ownership ranges from 84% in Kuwait to 2% in Bangladesh and Uganda.
Telephones (and connectivity) can be scarce and expensive.
Many consumers in countries with emerging economies access the internet from free-standing shops rather than homes.
Internet Connection Costs
Countries with emerging economies often have higher internet-related business costs.
Dial-up connection costs can vary considerably.
Broadband connections are developing quickly.
In 2002, 88 countries had broadband vs. 166 countries in 2006.
Broadband connections are still expensive in most countries.
Wireless Internet Access
At the end of 2007, there were 3.25 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide.
Countries with emerging economies have leapfrogged industrial countries in terms of usage.
Challenges of wireless e-marketing:
Modification of Web site content for small screens
Text entry using tiny keypads
Content development
Pricing and secure payments
The Digital Divide
E-marketers must consider the social environment in which e-business operates.
Disparities with regard to technology access can create a digital divide between countries or populations.
The digital divide raises challenging questions for global policy, international business, and entrepreneurship.
Overview of Ethics and Legal Issues
Ethics:
The values and practices of professionals,
The concerns and values of society as a whole,
Directed toward individual or group endeavors,
Important contributions to legal developments
=  The experiences and practices of those who work in the field are helpful to those who are charged with regulation and legal decision-making.
Overview of Ethics and Legal Issues
Law:
Also an expression of values,
Created for broader purposes = national or sometimes international populations,
It is a public endeavor = made by legislatures such as Congress or Parliament, enforced by executives or agencies, and interpreted by the courts,

Progress in the law can be slow, and particularly within the new context of digital communication.
Ethics & Ethical Codes
The study of ethics:
Central focus = analysis and description of basic concepts as what is right and wrong,
The examination of responsibilities, rights, and obligations,
Not limited to purely theoretical boundaries but study all levels of human interaction,
Important aspect: the study of professional activities,
Groups of individuals possessing special skills or knowledge have established codes and systems of fair practice,
E.g. The American Marketing Association’s (AMA) Code of Ethics      = Professional codes provide members with guidelines which are specific to their pursuits.
Ethics & Ethical Codes
Digital processes and potentialities are so new that ethics is only beginning to adapt itself to the Computer Revolution.
Critical issues:
The ownership of intangible data (intellectual property),
The role of privacy in a virtual world without walls,

The extent to which freedom of expression should be allowed,
The uses of data.
Ethics & Ethical Codes
Difficulties:
Lack of comparative historical situations,
The inability to analogize computers to objects or institutions with which society has had greater experience,
Electronic spaces are global in nature. What is accepted in Europe may be rejected in Asia or America,
Each participant in electronic marketing has to adhere to professional codes, but also to contribute to them.
The Problem of Self-Regulation
Emerging area of conflict: the role of formal law in the regulation of online conduct.
The Administration answer: the development of the Internet should be largely left to the free operation of the market.
The proper behaviors of participants are typically set forth in ethical codes developed by trade associations, commercial standards groups and the professions.
The Problem of Self-Regulation
Supporters of the self-regulation:
The private sector’s is able to rapidly identify and resolve problems specific to its areas of competence,
Once consensus is reached, uniformity is achieved through members’ compliance with ethical codes as well as by ongoing education of providers and consumers,
The law cannot force participation in these codes, but improved consumer confidence and enhanced economic opportunities will ensure voluntary compliance.
The Problem of Self-Regulation
Critics of self-regulation:
These incentives are insufficiently compelling,
Perpetrators of fraud benefit from schemes of short duration and are rarely interested in the long-term gains offered by adherence to ethical codes,
Commercial self-interest and pressures to maximize profits compromise the private sphere’s ability to police itself and only the sanctions the law can provide will make a difference.
This debate is far from over but governments are asserting themselves at least in the area of fraud prevention and in issues involving children’s privacy.
Privacy
The concept of privacy:
Both ethical and legal aspects and is relatively new to both disciplines,
Privacy is a product of the twentieth century: reactions to the phenomena of a maturing industrial and technological age, including the mass distribution of newspapers, the development of listening devices and the widespread use of photography,
Privacy has always been about information and the means of its delivery.
BUT lack of definition within the Constitution.
Privacy
The common law has established a series of privacy violations:
Unreasonable intrusion into the seclusion of another,
Unreasonable publicity of another’s private life,
The appropriation of another’s name or likeness,
The publication of another’s personal information in a false light. 
Privacy
Disagreement remains:
The seclusion theory = the ability to remain isolated from society.
This model encourages laws and ethical standards which are oriented toward maintaining personal distance and punishing those who cross the limits set by individuals.
The access-control:
Places its emphasis upon laws and standards which enable persons to reasonably regulate the information which they are giving up.
The autonomy model:
Define what constitutes private data = those which are necessary for a person to make life decisions.
Privacy
Within society, privacy interests compete against concerns of personal and public safety, economics and even the social and psychological need for association with others.
People are willing to give up personal information to get certain benefits - credit cards or frequent flyer mileage.
Ethics and law attempt to provide guidelines in the final decision.
Privacy within Digital Contexts
Information plays a pivotal role in the concept of privacy.
Conflicts about how data should be collected and used.
AMA Code of Ethics for Marketing on the Internet:
“information collected from customers should be confidential and used only for expressed purposes.” 
Privacy within Digital Contexts
DoubleClick:
An online advertising firm,
Collects and compiles large amounts of personal consumer information,
Developed a system of over 11,000 Web sites that carry advertising which, when clicked, enables users to visit product sites,
The system records the responses (clickstreams) to form a user profile and transmit individually-targeted advertising,
Active consent of the users is not required,
100,000 online profiles have been filed.
Privacy within Digital Contexts
DoubleClick acquired Abacus-Direct:
Specialized in the acquisition of off-line consumer data  (names, addresses and buying histories of a large percentage of American households).
Plans to integrate this data linking real life identities to DoubleClick’s online personalities.
Complain was filed by a coalition of privacy, civil rights and consumer groups for obtaining consent from each subject.
Privacy within Digital Contexts
How does it work?
With cookies:
Packets of data created within the hard-drive of a user in response to instructions received from a Web page,
Once stored, they can be re-transmitted from a user’s computer to a pertinent Web site.
Privacy within Digital Contexts
Many purposes:
Handle online information, creating such features as shopping baskets to hold purchases.
Recall stored sales information to remind users of items already ordered or to suggest new products.
Store data = full name, email and postal addresses, phone numbers, a computer’s geographic location and time logged online.
Normally automatically executed without any user action.
Cookie packets may be combined with other digital information and may be transferred between servers or sold to anyone with the capacity to read computer-generated data.
User tracking: when cookies are examined to determine an individual’s online behavior.
Privacy within Digital Contexts
This controversy reflects the unsettled nature of privacy itself:
A closely-guarded right = the ability to remain secluded from unwelcome intrusion + the capability to control the disclosure of personal data.
Advocates the implementation of policies which allow individuals to be explicitly informed of any data collection event and to have collection take place only if there is an affirmative decision to participate or opt-in.
Supporters of DoubleClick: argue that most users wish to receive the benefits of targeted advertising.
Privacy within Digital Contexts
The preliminary terms of an agreement include:
The obligation to provide clear notice of data collection,
A ban on combining existing data with personal information unless explicit permission,
Data obtained from cookies will be routinely deleted,
DoubleClick will initiate an extensive program of consumer privacy education.
There is a trend toward the reduction of the use of cookies:
Prominence of privacy policies,
Use of opt-in routines.
Privacy within Digital Contexts
Some cutting edge applications are raising additional issues: JAVA
A Web-friendly programming language allowing the downloading and running of programs or applets on individual computers,
Increasingly used to provide enhancements = dynamic animation, Web-based simulations,
Used to design programs = hostile applets used to surreptitiously access and transmit data on hard-drives, including email addresses, credit card records and other account information.
Privacy within Digital Contexts
Intelligent agents:
Programs which, once released by a user, can function autonomously within the Web to make electronic decisions,
Tasks: the searching of sites or the buying of products which conform to an individual’s tastes or interests,
Critics worry that the preferences which they hold may be chosen or controlled by entities other than their “owner.”
Privacy within Digital Contexts
Cookies, Java applets and intelligent agents are ubiquitous applications
= Able to function in any online session, without a user’s knowledge or control.
Online forms and electronic mail are used to gather information in exchange for browsing privileges or other benefits.
BUT most average users are uncertain of the ultimate value of the data they provide.

Solution: Consumer education about all uses of revealed data to increase the ability to make informed judgments.
Privacy within Digital Contexts
The collection of material from children:
Congress passed the Children’s Online Protection Act (COPPA), it requires that Web sites and other online media which knowingly collect information from children 12 years of age or under:
Provide notice to parents,
Obtain verifiable parental consent prior to the collection, use or disclosure of most information,
Allow parents to view and correct this information,
Enable parents to prevent further use or collection of data,
Limit personal information collection for a child’s participation in games, prize offers or related activities,
Establish procedures which protect the “confidentiality, security, and integrity of the personal information collected.” 
Privacy within Digital Contexts
The problem of privacy within electronic mail
= Unsettled aspect of online interaction.
U.S. Law
= Users who operate email accounts on private services are assured of their legal privacy through service agreements with their ISP.
International Privacy Issues
1998: The European Union’s Data Protection Directive

= Requires its member states to enact national laws to protect “fundamental rights + freedoms of natural persons, and in particular their right to privacy with respect to the processing of personal data.”
Subjects:
Are informed on how their data is used,
Are given opportunities to review and correct information.
International Privacy Issues
Data:
Use is restricted to the announced purpose,
Origin is disclosed.
Procedures to punish illegal activities are established.
Consumer collection contains opt-out capabilities.
Sensitive data collection cannot be accomplished without explicit permission.
Any international transfer of data is executed only with countries possessing adequate privacy protection laws.
International Privacy Issues
2000: The U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Commission agreement = U.S. organizations would submit to a series of safe harbor provisions for the protection of EU citizen data:
Notice about collection, purpose and use,
Choice in ability to opt-out of disclosure and third-party dissemination,
Third-party transfer, protection, and provisions for security, data integrity, redress and enforcement.
International Privacy Issues
Norms representing the present consensus for the minimum requirements essential to the ethical use of consumer information:
Notice: Users should be aware of a site’s information policy before data is collected,
Consent: Users should be allowed to choose participation or exclusion from the collection,
Access: Users should have the ability to access their data and correct it if erroneous,
Security: Policies to ensure the integrity of data and the prevention of misuse should be in place,
Enforcement: Users should have effective means to hold data collectors to their policies.
Digital Property
Traditionally, the law has protected intangible or intellectual property through three basic mechanisms:
Copyright  = the right to publish or duplicate the expressions of  ideas,
Patent law = the ability to reproduce or manufacture an inventor’s product,

Trademark = images, symbols, words or other indicators which are registered with the government and have become positively associated with a product’s identity in the market.
Digital Property
Computer-based communication has posed particularly difficult problems for intellectual property:
The electronic medium by which messages are carried
= inventions,
The messages
= expressions of ideas,
Graphical and animation objects
= creations                                 
= associated with a commercial entity.
Copyright
Copyright = the primary means of protecting most on the Internet, including text and other data.
Limitations created for the public’s benefit:
The doctrine of Fair Use: ability to copy without cost, reasonable portions of protected material for purposes relating to such public activities as education, news reporting and editorial comment,
 The doctrine of First Sale: limits the ability of a copyright holder to obtain profit from the sale of her work after the initial time at which the material is sold. Purchasers are subsequently given the ability to transfer or otherwise dispose of their copy.
Copyright
1997: The No Electronic Theft Act = The NET Act       = copyright protection for computer content + sanctions when infringement is committed for commercial or private financial gain or by the reproduction or distribution of one or more copies of copyrighted works having $1000 or more in retail value.
Proponents believe that it will encourage innovation by protecting material placed on the Internet.
Critics believe that the definition of infringement has been made problematically broad = electronic distribution without reproduction.
Copyright
1998: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act:
The DMCA grant ISP’s protection from acts of user infringement as long as certain procedures are followed, including the prompt reporting and disabling of infringing material.
Supporters claim that it will free ISP’s from liability for its users’ illegal actions and encourage industry growth.
Critics believe that the reporting and disabling requirements may cause innocent behavior to be presumed infringing and wrongfully censored.
Copyright
1998: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act:
The DMCA criminalizes the circumvention of software protections and the development or distribution of circumvention products.
Supporters believe that this law will increase commercial willingness to place material on the Internet by deterring online piracy.
Trademarks
Trademark law is concerned with the ownership of intellectual property which identifies goods or services.
The federal Lanham Act:
Trademarks may be registered and protected with the government,
In order to pursue, claimants must prove that the mark is protectable,
The Act also prohibits dilution - the diminishment of the ability to identify or distinguish a good or service.
Trademark law has recently been applied to the Internet naming system:
Domains are unique configurations of letters or numbers which are used to route data,
The most familiar www.someplace.com.
Trademarks
Trademark violations:
Similarities in names,
Cybersquatting: Registration of domains which resemble or duplicate  the names of existing corporations
+ Offer the domain for sale at a price set significantly higher than that originally paid,

1999: the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act = A person is liable to suit if he registers, traffics or sells a domain bearing a name which is identical or confusingly similar to a protected mark or would dilute the worth of the mark.
Trademarks
Trademark violations:
Metatags = HTML statements which describe a Web site’s contents:
Allow search engines to identify sites relevant to topics of their inquiries,
It is possible to insert words or phrases which are calculated to provide optimal attractiveness, including material protected by trademark.
Keywords assigned within search engines. Trademark-protected keywords are raising issues when the result of the search is not directed to the trademark holder.
Hyperlinks  which take users to areas other than their introductory page may cause confusion or deprive the target sites of revenue obtained through the selling of advertising.
Patents
Patents are granted, by the United States government, for inventive processes or steps.
Tailored toward industrial or mechanical concerns.
Creators of software are attempting to make use of its protections:
Material is not subject to acquisition through the doctrines of Fair Use or First Sale,
Patent powers are derived from constitutional concerns, public access to patented material is assured after the term of the patent has expired +         the patent itself is always on file with the government.
The use of business patents = activities such as marketing approaches and methods for conducting commerce.
Patent protection claimed for reverse online auctions, secure credit card processing, and incentive-based methods for reading Web site advertising.
Licenses
Licenses = contractual agreements made between consumers and software vendors which allow the buyer to use the product, but restrict duplication or distribution.
Within the computer environment, two license format:
Shrinkwrap or break-the-seal licenses,

Clickwrap licenses when a user is required to click a button within a program to demonstrate acceptance of terms.
Licenses
Effort to enforce the terms of software licenses                           = The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act.
If adopted by the states, this model would govern all legal agreements pertaining to software transactions, including sales.
Supporters: the majority of software manufacturers and publishers.
Critics: they argue that UCITA will enforce license provisions including those restricting copying and resale of material, liability for damages incurred from defective software, and, it has been suggested, the ability to criticize software performance.
Trade Secrets
The federal Economic Espionage Act of 1996                                          = Address digital advances + makes it a criminal offense to divulge trade secrets.
Trade secrets:
Can include, but are not restricted to, formulas, plans, market data, algorithms, programs, codes and models,
May be stored online or in tangible formats,
Computer-based disclosures such as emails, downloads, Web publication and similar means are within the ambit of the Act.
Employees possessing trade secrets may be prohibited from engaging in similar businesses for a period of time.
Data Ownership
Increased competition on the electronic market
Measures to obtain the advantages that control of information can provide.
Data relating to such technical issues as Web site usage:
Have been easy to access and under informal practices,
Have often been shared among site owners, marketing professionals, advertisers and consumers.
Click data: make information collected from banner advertisements invisible to site owners and their clients.
Protective technologies raise new issues concerning the ownership of information.
Data Ownership
Spidering: Use of software applications = robots to enter targeted Web sites and obtain data for the use of its owner.
This activity constitutes a trespass to property.
The special protection of data relating to facts:
American copyright law protects expressions of ideas, but not the ideas themselves.
Electronic databases often contain arrangements of facts, there is a movement within the law to offer protection for specially compiled data.
The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement of 1995: Provisions exist within this Agreement to afford this kind of protection.
Module 4
E-Marketing Research
Chapter 6 Objectives (Cont.)
Describe several ways to monitor the web for gathering desired information.
Contrast client-side, server-side, and real-space approaches to data collection.
Explain the concepts of big data and cloud computing.
Highlight four important methods of analysis that e-marketers can apply to data warehouse information.
The Purina Story
Nestle Purina PetCare wanted to know whether their websites and online advertising increased off-line     behavior.
Nestle Purina developed 3 research questions:
Are our buyers using our branded websites?
Should we invest beyond these branded Web sites in online advertising?
If so, where should we place the advertising?
The Purina Story, Cont.
Combined online and off-line shopping panel data revealed:
Banner click-through rate was low (0.06%).
31% of subjects exposed to Purina ads mentioned the Purina brand compared with 22% of the no-exposure subjects.
Home/health and living sites received the most visits from their customers.
The information helped the firm decide where to place banner ads.
Data Drive Strategy
U.S. marketers spend $6.7B annually on marketing research; global spend is $18.9B.
E-marketers can generate a great deal of data by using surveys, Web analytics, secondary data, social media conversations, etc.
Marketing insight occurs somewhere between information and knowledge.
Data without insight or application to inform marketing strategy are worthless.
Purina, for example, sorts through hundreds of millions of pieces of data about 21.5 million consumers to make decisions.
Big Data
Big data refers to huge data sets that are difficult to manage and analyze.
31% of marketers would like to collect Web data daily.
74% collect demographic data; 64% collect transaction data; 35% monitor social media.
Purina, for example, sorts through hundreds of millions of pieces of data from about 21.5 million consumers to make marketing decisions.
From Data to Decision: Nestle Purina
Marketing Knowledge Management
Knowledge management is the process of managing the creation, use, and dissemination of knowledge.
Data, information, and knowledge are shared with internal decision makers, partners, channel members, and sometimes customers.
A marketing knowledge database includes data about customers, prospects and competitors.
The Electronic MIS
A marketing information system (MIS) is the process by which marketers manage knowledge.
Many firms store data in databases and data warehouses, available 24/7 to e-marketers.
The Internet and other technologies facilitate data collection.
Secondary data provide information about competitors, consumers, the economic environment, etc.
Marketers use the internet  and other technologies to collect primary data about consumers.
Most Common Data Collection Methods
SOURCE 1: INTERNAL RECORDS
Accounting, finance, production, and marketing personnel collect and analyze data for marketing planning.
Sales data
Customer characteristics and behavior
Universal product codes (UPCs)
Tracking of user movements through web pages
Web sites visited before and after the firm’s Web site.
SOURCE 2: SECONDARY DATA
Can be collected more quickly and less expensively than primary data.
Secondary data may not meet e-marketer’s information needs.
Data was gathered for a different purpose.
Quality of secondary data may be unknown.
Data may be old.
Marketers continually scan the macroenvironment for threats and opportunities, a procedure commonly called business intelligence.
Public & Private Data Sources
Publicly generated data
U.S. Patent Office
CIA World Factbook
American Marketing Association (AMA)
Wikipedia
Ministry of Economy and Planning (www.mep.gov.sa)
The Patent Office of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (http://www.gccpo.org/)
Privately generated data
comScore
Forrester Research
Nielsen/NetRatings
Commercial online databases
Euro monitor (http://www.euromonitor.com)
Competitive Intelligence Example
CI involves analyzing the industries in which a firm operates as input to the firm’s strategic positioning and to understand competitor weaknesses.
CI can help firm’s analyze competition as well as assist in strategic planning
Intelligence cycles would include the following steps:
Define the intelligence requirements
Collect and organize information
Analyze by applying information to the specific purpose and recommending action
Report and inform others of the finding
Evaluate the impact of intelligence use and suggest process improvements
Competitive Intelligence Example (Cont.)
Sources may include
press releases,
new products,
alliances and co-brands,
trade shows
third-party, industry-specific sites
user conversation in the social media Facebook.
Information Quality
Secondary and primary sources have many limitations.
E-marketers should be wary of data, especially if it is secondary data. 
E-marketers should:
Discover the website’s author,
Try to determine if the site author is an authority on the Web site topic,
Check to see when the site was last updated,
Determine how comprehensive the site is,
Try to validate the research data by finding similar information at other sources on the internet or in hard copy at the library, and
Check the site content for accuracy.
What about Wikipedia, is it accurate?
Source 3: Primary Data
When secondary data are not available, marketers may collect their own information.
Primary data are information gathered for the first time to solve a particular problem.
More expensive and time consuming
Current, more relevant & exclusive 
Primary data collection can be enhanced by the internet:
Online experiments
Online focus groups
Online observation
Content analysis
Online survey research
Primary Research Steps
The steps to conduct primary research are:
Define the research problem,
Develop a research plan,
Research approach
Sample design
Contact method
Instrument design
Collect data,
Analyze the data, and
Distribute results
Typical Research problems for E-Marketers
Source 3: Primary Data Collection Methods
In-depth interviews (IDI) are better done offline
Primary data collection enhanced by the Internet
Online experiments
Online focus groups
Online observation
Online survey research
Web surveys
Online panels
Advantages & disadvantages of online survey research
Online Panels
Online panels include people who have agreed to be subjects of marketing research.
Participants are usually paid and often receive free products.
Panels can help combat sampling and response problems, but can be more expensive than traditional methods of sample generation.
Ethics of Online Research
Companies conducting research on the web often give respondents a gift or fee for participating.
Other ethical concerns include:
Respondents are increasingly upset at getting unwelcomed e-mail requests for survey participation.
“Harvesting” of e-mail addresses from newsgroups without permission.
“Surveys” used to build a database.
Privacy of user data.
Other Technology-Enabled Approaches
Client-side Data Collection
Cookies
PC meter with panel of users to track the user clickstream.
Server-side Data Collection
Site log software can generate reports on number of users who view each page, location of prior site visited, etc.
Real-time profiling tracks users’ movements through a website.
Following the clickstream at FTC.gov
Real-Space Approaches
Real-space primary data collection: technology enabled approaches to gather information offline.
Data collection occurs at off-line points of purchase and information is stored and used in marketing databases.
Real-space techniques include bar code scanners and credit card terminals.
Catalina Marketing uses the Universal Product Code (UPC) for promotional purposes at grocery stores.
REAL-SPACE DATA COLLECTION & STORAGE EXAMPLE
Marketing Databases & Data Warehouses
Product databases hold information about product features, prices, and inventory levels; customer databases hold information about customer characteristics and behaviors.
Data warehouses are storehouses for the entire organization’s historical data, not just for marketing data.
Software vendors are attempting to solve the website maintenance problem with content management systems.
The current trend in data storage is toward cloud computing: a network of online Web servers used to store and manage data.
Cloud Computing
Data Analysis & Distribution
Four important types of analysis for marketing decision making include:
Data mining
Customer profiling
RFM (recency, frequency, monetary value) analysis
Report generating
Knowledge Management Metrics
Two metrics are currently in widespread use for online data storage:
ROI: total cost savings divided by total cost of the installation.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): includes cost of hardware, software, labor, and cost savings.
Module 5: E- Marketing Management
Product ,Price, Promotion and Place
Many Products Capitalize
on Internet Properties
A product:
A bundle of benefits that satisfies the needs of organizations/consumers and for which they are willing to exchange money or other items of value.
Items such as tangible goods, services, ideas, people, and places.
Many Products Capitalize
on Internet Properties
May be classified by the purpose for which they are purchased:
Consumer products = purchased by an individual for personal consumption.
Businesses sell products to consumers in the business-to-consumer (B2C) market.
Consumers sell products to one another in the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) market.
Industrial products = used in the operation of an organization, as components for manufacture into final product, or for resale (B2B market).
Many Products Capitalize
on Internet Properties
Some new products are unique to the Internet (search engines).
Other products use the Internet as a new distribution channel +add unique technology-enabled services (books).
With the Internet’s properties of market deconstruction, customer control, and other e-marketing trends:
Many challenges,
A plethora of new opportunities.
The success of Classmates.com demonstrates how a new and purely online product can use the Internet’s properties to build a successful brand.
Many Products Capitalize
on Internet Properties
To create new products:
Research to determine what is important to customers,
Design strategies to deliver more value than do competitors.
In line with the Sources, Databases, and Strategy model, tier two strategies involve the marketing mix 4Ps and customer relationship management (CRM).
The process of designing these strategies is closely tied to the tactics used to implement them.
The marketing mix (product, price, distribution, marketing communication) + customer relationship management (CRM) work together to produce relational and transactional outcomes with consumers.
Creating Customer Value Online
Never has competition for online customer attention and dollars been more fierce.

To succeed, firms must employ that result in
Customer value = Benefits – Costs.
Creating Customer Value Online
But what exactly is value?
The entire product experience:
Customer’s first awareness of a product,
All customer touch points (including the Web site experience and e-mail from a firm),
The actual product usage and postpurchase customer service,
The compliments a consumer gets from friends while using the product.
Value is defined wholly by the customer.
Value involves customer expectations; if the actual product experience falls short of their expectations, customers will be disappointed.
Value is applied at all price levels.

Online Benefits 
The Internet technology brings a new set of desired benefits:
Effective Web navigation,
Quick download speed,
Clear site organization,
Attractive and useful site design,
Secure transactions & privacy,
Free information or services,
User-friendly Web browsing and e-mail reading.
BUT as Internet technology evolves, user needs change, and the opportunities expand.
Marketers must make five general product decisions that comprise its bundle of benefits to meet customer needs: attributes, branding, support services, labeling, and packaging.
Attributes
Product attributes include:
Overall quality: “you get what you pay for” = higher and consistent quality generally means higher prices,
Specific features: Include such elements as color, taste, style, size, and speed of service.
Benefits are the same features from a user perspective (i.e., what will the attribute do to solve problems or meet needs and wants?).
For example, Yahoo! provides a list of Web site categories (attribute), which helps users find things quickly online (benefit).
Product benefits are key components in the value proposition.
Attributes
The Internet increases customer benefits in many ways that have revolutionized marketing practice:
The move from atoms to bits: media, music, software, and other digital products are presented on the Web.
Product customization:
Tangible products such as laptop computers can be sold alone or with many additional hardware and software items or services to provide additional benefits at a higher price.
Intangible products, online research firms can offer many different business services in a variety of combinations.
Information products can be reconfigured and personalized very easily, quickly, and cheaply, as compared to manufactured products.
Attributes
The Internet offers users the unique opportunity to customize products automatically without leaving their keyboards.
User personalization is another form of customization:
Through Web site registration and other techniques, Web sites can:
Greet users by name,
Suggest product offerings of interest based on previous purchases,
Amazon.com
Branding
A brand includes a name (McDonald’s), a symbol (golden arches), or other identifying information.
When a firm registers that information with the U.S. Patent Office, it becomes a trademark and is legally protected from imitation.
According to the U.S. government, “a trademark is either a word, phrase, symbol or design, or combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods or services of one party from those of others”.
Branding
A brand is:
A promise to customers,
A brand name + its image = the benefits a user desires,
A way to establish trust for the customer.
Important online, because of concern over security and privacy issues,
Trustworthy brand names add to customer-perceived benefits = higher prices,
The value proposition.
Branding
Customers and prospects develop brand images based on every brand contact:
One-way media such as advertising and packaging,
Two-way communication such as conversations with the firm’s customer service or sales people on the phone, at trade shows, on Web sites, or in company-initiated e-mail.
When using the Internet, a firm must be sure that its online messages and employee e-mails convey a positive brand image that is consistent with messages from all other contact points.
Branding
Companies creating new products for online sale face several branding decisions:
Whether to apply existing brand names or create new brand names for new products,
Whether to lend their brand name as a cobrand with other firms,
What domain name to use for the Web site.
Branding
7 components for building a great global brand:
Research your corporate constituencies. Information is critical for global brand building.
Understand your business. Set guidelines based on global objectives.
Advance the vision. Decide on the desired reputation, create a strategy to support it, and develop a strategic positioning document.
Release the power of communications. All company communication should work together to promote the brand.
Branding
7 components for building a great global brand:
Set up your communications infrastructure. Build a communication council with the firm’s advertising, public relations, investor relations, and human resource specialists, both inside and outside the firm.
Include your employees in the message mix. This is especially important in a time of PR crisis.
Measure performance. Track progress toward goals and determine communication effectiveness.
Using Existing Brand Names
On the Web
An existing brand name can be used for any new product:
Makes sense when the brand is well-known + has strong brand equity (value).
For example, Amazon added music CDs, videos, software, electronics, and more to its product mix. When products with offline sales introduce online extensions choosing to use the same brand name (e.g., The New York Times).
Some firms may not want to use the same brand name online and offline, for several reasons:
If the new product or channel is risky, the firm does not want to jeopardize the brand’s good name by associating with a product failure.
A powerful Internet success might inadvertently reposition the offline brand.
Sometimes the firm wants to change the name slightly for the new market or channel, as a way of differentiating the online brand from the offline brand.
Creating New Brands
for Internet Marketing
If an organization wants to create a new Internet brand, a good name is very important.
Good brand names should:
Suggest something about the product (e.g., www.Classmates.com),
Differentiate the product from competitors (e.g., www.gurl.com),
Be capable of legal protection.
On the Internet, a brand name should be:
Short,
Memorable,
Easy to spell,
Capable of translating well into other languages.
Cobranding
Cobranding:
When two different companies put their brand names on the same product.
Common on the Internet and is a good way for firms to build synergy through expertise and brand recognition.
For example:
Sports Illustrated now co-brands with CNN as CNNSI.
Even the Web site address displays the cobrand: sportsillustrated.cnn.com.
Internet Domain Names
Organizations spend a lot of time and money developing powerful, unique brand names for strong brand equity.
Using the company trademark or brand name in the Web address helps consumers quickly find the site.
For example, www.coca-cola.com.
Anatomy of a URL:
A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) = Web site address = IP address (Internet Protocol) = domain name.
Categorization scheme, similar to telephone area codes, that helps computer users find other computers on the Internet network.
Are numbers, but because users can more easily remember names, a domain name server translates back and forth.
Internet Domain Names
A domain name contains several levels:
http:// = hypertext protocol = The browser should expect data using the hypertext protocol—meaning documents that are linked together using hyperlinks.
www = world wide web = Not necessary and most commercial sites register their name both with and without it.
dell = second level domain = The name of the company or the brand name.
com = top level domain = Firms must first decide in which top level domain to register. Most businesses in the U.S. want .com,
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN):
A non-profit corporation,
A committee of experts to make decisions about protocol and domain name assignment, registration,
Approves all new top level names such as the latest: biz, .info, .pro, .name, .coop, .aero, and .museum.
Registering a New Domain Name
VeriSign provides domain registering services for a mere $70/2 years/name.

Problems:
More than 97% of words in the dictionary already registered as domain names,
The online name a firm desires may not be available.
A dictionary name is not necessarily the best option because it already has a meaning attached to it = difficult to build a competitive advantage.
Registering a New Domain Name
What happens if the firm name has been registered by someone else?
Come up with alternative names: DeltaComm, a software developer was the first to register www.delta.com before Delta Airlines (originally www.delta-air.com),
Buy the name from the currently registered holder.
Many creative Netizens register lots of popular names and offer them for sale at prices of up to millions of dollars:
GreatDomains.com allows users to buy and sell popular domain names.
Support Services
Customer support (during and after purchases):
Is a critical component in the value proposition,
Need knowledgeable customer service representatives,
Is critical for some technical products for installation, maintenance problems, product guarantees, and service warranties.
Customer service:
Works to increase customer satisfaction with the firm’s products,
Is a product benefit = an important part of customer relationship management.
Labeling
Product labels:
Identify brand names, sponsoring firms, and product ingredients,
Provide often instructions for use and promotional materials,
On tangible products = create product recognition and influence decision behavior at the point of purchase,
For online services = provides terms of product usage, product features, and other information comprise online.
Labeling
Labeling at Web sites, customers can read:
How to install and use a software downloaded from the Internet,
Extensive legal information about copyright use on their Web pages,
Online labeling can serve many of the same purposes on the Web as offline
Many brick-and-mortar businesses display the Better Business Bureau logo on their doors to give the customer a sense of confidence and trust.
The TRUSTe privacy shield: If firms agree to certain terms of use regarding privacy of customer information collected at their site, they affix the TRUSTe seal to their Web sites as part of a label.
E-Marketing Enhanced
Product Development
The move from atoms to bits adds complexity to online product offers.
Developers must:
Combine digital text, graphics, video, and audio, and use new Internet delivery systems.
Must integrate front-end customer service operations with back-end data collection + fulfillment methods to deliver product.
This creates steep learning curves for traditional firms.
E-marketers need to consider several factors that affect product development and product mix strategies with new technologies.
Customer Codesign
The power shift to buyers allows for many unusual business partnerships and for both business and consumer collaboration.
Partners are forming synergistic clusters to help design customer products that deliver value.
Internet technology allows this type of collaboration to occur electronically across international borders as well.
Customer interaction in the early and late stages of product development can actually increase product success.
This is especially true when product codesign occurs with what is called the “lead user” of a product.
This is a key person who uses the product and often innovates himself to solve product use problems as they occur.
Electronic Input
Good marketers look everywhere for customer feedback to improve products.
With the increase of Web sites inviting customer product ratings, the proliferation of e-mail “word of mouse,” and the speed and reach of the Net, customers are quick to spread the word about product strengths and weaknesses.
Savvy firms monitor customer input electronically and refine products to meet customers’ needs.
Companies hire electronic clipping services—firms to scan the Internet looking for company and product discussion = the electronic version of traditional clipping services that read print media and clip out articles mentioning the firm and its brands.
The electronic input process:
Is similar to the use of marketing research to support product development;
The scale is much larger because many customers worldwide can be involved and provide quick feedback.
Web Content Development
On the Web, “content is king.”
Customers visit Web sites for information, entertainment, and to buy products.
Content attracts users and keeps them returning.
5 tips for “screaming content:”
Stay fresh. Update the site every day and at least once on the weekend. That takes a huge commitment!
Be relevant and unique. Deliver highly focused content that is differentiated from competitive site content.
Make it easy to find. Users want to find information or products immediately. Also, don’t include hyperlinks to other sites for content because users don’t often return after they leave.
Serve a smorgasbord of content. Integrate current news and facts with longer features and commentary. Include interactive material relevant to the site, such as quizzes, calculators, searches, and so forth. Vary the format to include multimedia.
Deliver content everywhere. This includes Web sites, wireless devices, and special networks.
Web Content Development
A new breed of syndicated content providers has emerged to serve Web developers:
Is parallel to the Associated Press that feeds news to local and national newspapers and magazines.
Includes stock quotes, breaking news, sports updates, weather information, and more—in all formats from text to video.
An interesting trend involves users who want text-based content only:
A small but growing group of Web users does not want the distraction of video, sound, animation, and other non-text items,
They favor simple text information,
They block advertising content with special software and know exactly what they want online,
They do not like HTML e-mail.
Important because mobile handheld devices use mostly text content.
Web content providers might consider how to pare down the features in special areas for these users + charge a subscription fee for the content.
Internet Properties Spur
Other Opportunities
Market deconstruction created a disaggregation and reaggregation of product and service components to form unusual new products and firms:
These firms provide bundles of benefits difficult to achieve before the Internet.
The AutoMall Online.
The Internet is a great information equalizer:
Fierce competition + lots of product imitation + short product life cycles.
In this environment, product differentiation is the key to keep from becoming a price-driven commodity industry.
Online auctions: Not long after eBay came online, Amazon.com and others began offering auctions.
Short product life cycle: when Frank Sinatra died, BMG’s five-person new-product development team created a lifetime tribute and a series of product offerings for the Web site in six short hours.
Firms must respond quickly to new technology or lose.
Innovation online is still rewarded.
New-Product Strategies
for E-Marketing
Many new products were introduced by “one-pony” firms:
= The firm was built around the first successful product,
Netscape, Yahoo!, and Classmates.
Other firms added Internet products to an already successful product mix:
Microsoft.
Product Mix Strategies
How can marketers integrate hot product ideas into current product mixes? There are 6 categories of new-product strategies based on marketing objectives and other factors such as risk appetite, strength of current brand names, resource availability, and competitive entries:
Discontinuous innovations are new-to-the-world products never seen before.
On the Internet = the first Web authoring software, cell phone/PDA combination, shopping
agent, and search engine.
There are many discontinuous innovations yet to come on the Internet.
This strategy is quite risky, the potential rewards for success are great.
E-marketers planning discontinuous innovations must remember that their customers will have to learn and adopt new behaviors¾things they have not done before.
The new behavior must be easy and the perceived benefits worthwhile.
Product Mix Strategies
New product lines are introduced when firms take an existing brand name and create new products in a completely different category.
Microsoft created a new line when it introduced its Internet Explorer Web browser. Because the Netscape browser was already available, Microsoft’s entry was not a discontinuous innovation.
Additions to existing product lines occur when organizations add a new flavor, size, or other variation to a current product line.
The New York Times Direct is a slightly different version of the hard-copy edition, adapted for online delivery. It is yet another product in The New York Times line, which includes the daily paper, weekly book review, and others.
Product Mix Strategies
Improvements or revisions of existing products are introduced as “new and improved” and, thus, replace the old product.
Web-based e-mail systems improved on client-based e-mail systems such as Eudora or Outlook because users could check and send e-mail from any Web connected computer.
Repositioned products are current products that are either targeted to different markets or promoted for new uses.
Yahoo! began as a search directory on the Web and then repositioned itself as a portal (an Internet entry point with many services).
Me-too lower-cost products are introduced to compete with existing brands by offering a price advantage.
When America Online and other ISPs were charging per hour rates for Internet access, several other providers introduced unlimited use at flat rate pricing for $19.95 per month.
A Word About ROI
Need for performance metrics:
As feedback so firms can assess the success of their e-marketing strategies and tactics.
When introducing new products, online or offline.
(The expected product revenue over time is forecasted) – (marketing and other expenses) =  an estimated ROI for new products prior to launch.
Payout  = the R & D and other initial costs will be recovered at a particular date based on projected sales.
Break-even date = when the product is projected to start making a profit.
How long is acceptable? Internet projects had to break even within three months or they would not get funded. Of course the exact timing varies by industry.
ROI and break-even are important metrics for selling new product ideas internally and for measuring their success in the market.
A Taxonomy for Internet Products
Thousands of products based on Internet technologies have been introduced.
These can be classified according to the customers to whom they appeal:
Each column represents a group of customers,
Each row in the exhibit represents a type of product.
This matrix is helpful because it displays areas of new-product opportunity.
New-Product Trends
Cutting-edge products and the technologies that make them work create digital value applying the following concepts:
Each represents a new brand, A new product line, A discontinuous innovation, A technology improvement.
New products (from wireless end user appliances to B2B software) success depends on how well they deliver customer value by offering desired benefits or by lowering costs.
New-Product Trends
Many new products are unseen by the final consumer:
BUT they form the engine that drives electronic commerce,
They are enabling products,
Cisco Systems makes the hardware and software that powers computer networks.
New technologies accelerate product change.
Most important technologies in 2002 = wireless/mobile computing, distributed content delivery and local caching, digital imaging, clustering and parallel computing, high scale interoperability, and universal network storage.
New-Product Trends
4 new-product trends in the B2B market, with the potential to improve efficiency
and effectiveness in marketing functions such as sales, distribution, supply chain
management, and marketing research:
Value chain automation. Software products enable businesses to perform important marketing functions (value chain).
Outsourcing. Businesses look for providers of key value chain functions. Application service providers (ASPs) perform marketing functions on behalf of other businesses.
Information sharing. Organizations now share internal information with selected value chain partners. OBI and XML, two variations on electronic data interchange (EDI), support information sharing.
Centralizing information access. Corporate portals = a single integrated interface to all of a company’s data stores = reduce information search times for their employees = cost savings + effectiveness.
New-Product Trends
3 new-product trends operate primarily in the B2C market and have the
power to open up new markets:
Multimedia. Gains in network performance enables Internet multimedia (from video on demand to Webisodes).
Assistive technologies. Clever developments allow for computer access by persons with a wide range of disabilities + use for everyday applications such as listening to one’s e-mail while driving.
Convergence of media. Expect the biggest initial improvements in the corporate market with gains in consumer markets close behind.
Value Chain Automation
Value chain automation:
Benefits = improvements in efficiency and effectiveness of operations among suppliers, manufacturers, and the entire distribution channel,
Automates existing business processes (order execution),
Enables processes not previously feasible (data mining to uncover consumer behavior patterns),
Helps firms solve some of its main difficulties + lower costs = lower prices for customers.
Enabling products = expensive,
BUT properly installed and managed, they can bring millions of dollars to the bottom line through new market opportunities or cost savings.
Value Chain Automation
6 benefits by purchasing off-the-shelf software solutions:
Rapid deployment: Installation team + after-sale support services + helps  to integrate existing systems with the new technology provided.
Relatively bug-free rollout of systems:  Service quality of the business immediately improved.
Integrated solutions: Enabling technologies = integrated solutions that help with multiple functions in the value chain.
Large number of features: Increasing competition = more features offered.
Compatibility with business trading partners: Improves internal systems conformity to industry standards + enhances its position in systems integration.
Cost savings: Infrastructure products save both time and money.
Promotion
Companies can buy enabling products to help manage four key promotional activities on the Net:
Affiliate Programs:
Sites pay their affiliates referral fees to help to drive traffic to the affiliate sponsor,
Low-cost way to acquire customers,
Keeping track of the click-throughs and properly crediting the affiliates is a complex programming task.
Amazon:
The logo is splashed over the Web sites of some 600,000 Amazon affiliates ,
Each click through on the logo + merchandise purchase generates revenue for the associate.
Even if Amazon were to lose money on the sale by paying the referral fee, it could make it up on repeat business by some of the referred customers.
Promotion
Targeted Advertising:
Marketers go to great lengths to target ads to appropriate demographic and psychographic segments.
User surfing patterns form an excellent basis by which to target ads.
DoubleClick sells services to target ads based on users’ surfing habits + can follow the user from site to site around the Internet and target ads accordingly.
Personalized Promotions:
Many sites create custom Web pages for each user, targeting specific promotions for each user’s individual preferences.
Dynamically creating Web pages = a complex programming task.
Firms such as Vignette automate dynamic creation of Web pages.
Promotion
Sales:
In the B2B market, enabling software are used to maintain relationships with its corporate clients.
Vignette gives customers instant access to pricing information, product availability, and order lead-time.
Catalog aggregator:
The online manufacturer’s rep takes information from multiple vendor databases and distills it into a single database available for search by the end user.
Enabling companies help automate the aggregation process.
Product Configuration
Proper component configuration = difficult tasks in high-tech products sale:
Well-trained sales force can properly configure products for end user,
BUT, many end users prefer to configure their own products online:
For convenience,
To speed delivery of the product,
Self-service = product benefit.
Automatic configuration requires a software program = expert system.
Enabling software guide users through the process of product configuration based on their needs.
Clients = communications, healthcare, and high-tech manufacturing industries, where configurations for equipment and services are often complex.
Brokerages
Web auction sites:
Are all the rage in the B2B, B2C, and C2C markets.
Difficult to write + long to test and debug the software.
Key characteristic = reliability.
Airline, food, gas, and water industries use reverse auction software to drive down prices for products purchased from their suppliers.
Payment/Financing:
Barriers to trading in the B2B market = processing credit for purchases.
Enabling software = automates providing, verifying, and processing credit.
Key characteristic = reliability. 
Software support B2B payments + financing + customer credit approvals.
Customer Service
Generally, businesses don’t respond very promptly to e-mail inquiries and complaints.
Ideally: messages should receive a personal response with 48 hours.
BUT employee costs for e-mail customer service can be prohibitive,
+ businesses prefer to develop a consistent response to similar problems.
Enabling softwares help route + respond to e-mail customer inquiries:
Immediately acknowledges e-mail + promises a response within a fixed time frame,
Can route the message ( scan for keywords) to the appropriate customer service representative,
Can call up previously messages + account information to help form a context for the inquiry,
Can compose a personalized response using artificial intelligence!
Customer service representatives accept the generated response or compose an entirely new response.
Companies can double the productivity of their e-mail response teams.
Distribution
Goal = just-in-time (JIT) delivery of products to avoid carrying excessive amounts of inventory.
Main difficulty = coordination.
Solution = enabling software that supports value chain management.
Sun Microsystems:
Does not make any of the components that go into its computers,
Coordinates all interactions in its value chain,
= the activities of its suppliers and its suppliers’ suppliers to ensure continued viability of the entire value chain.
Relationship Marketing
Datamining customer information reveal important marketing opportunities.
Enabling software automates the task of profiling customers:
Identify customers characteristics,
Target e-mail promotions,
Provide real-time profiling of consumer behavior dynamic site configuration in response to that behavior.
Outsourcing
Application service providers (ASPs) perform off-site value chain functions for their client businesses.
Example =outsource payroll: manager logs onto the ASP’s Web site + enters the hour totals for each employee + hits submit, and a courier delivers the checks the next day!
Distinction between application service providers and the enablers = location + support
Enablers: business license software + install, configure, and maintain the software on-site,
ASP: the software resides at the ASP’s site + the business accesses the application remotely via a Web browser.
Outsourcing
Advantages of the ASP:
Lower startup costs,
Lower or no information technology staff costs,
Lower switching costs,
Particularly attractive for small businesses.
Disadvantages of the ASP:
Lack of control over key customer data and business processes.
ASPs:
Some can run an entire business = aggregate almost all of the value chain functions for the client businesses.
Other ASPs focus on a single value chain function such as payroll or customer service.
Information Sharing
Today businesses are sharing information with their value chain partners.
Electronic data interchange (EDI) = generic term for the exchange of data between businesses in digital form.
Benefits:
Consistent standards = data do not need to be rekeyed by the receiving business,
Exchange is easier if the businesses agree on a common format for exchanging data,
BUT, this is complicated because most businesses store data in proprietary formats.
2 solutions:
Open buying on the Internet (OBI) = each business translate its data to a common format for exchange,
XML, allows each business to keep its own format while sending the instructions for translation to the receiving business.
Information Sharing
Extensible Markup Language (XML):
Extensible = the language can be extended by the user to accommodate new types of data.
It has strong support = it is built into Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, the MS-Office suite, etc.
A number of industry standards groups base their content definitions on XML.
To better understand XML:
Consider that a cook who is baking a cake needs both an ingredient list and a recipe to be successful,
The ingredient list corresponds to a company’s data,
The recipe corresponds to XML formatting instructions,
The company receiving the information must have both in order to decode the communication.
Centralizing Information Access
Corporate portals:
Use Web-based technology to create sites specifically for a particular company’s employees.
Are an extension of an earlier concept, the intranet (site for internal consumption for corporate information such as news, policies, and procedures).
A wide variety of corporate information stores—such as sales data, groupware documents, and calendars.
Translate data from all of the information stores into a common interface for presentation to the employee.
Have the potential to save businesses millions of dollars by reducing the time that their employees spend searching for information.
Example: My.yahoo where users can customize the screen display to include categories of information that they find useful.
Centralizing Information Access
Extranets = corporate portals that value chain partners are allowed to access.
For example, Sun Microsystems: Sun’s suppliers have nearly complete access to Sun’s production information and use that access to plan their own production schedules.
Groupware products such as Lotus Domino:
Used to coordinate and share information among work teams.
Support threaded discussion groups. Each thread represents a separate topic. Users add to the thread by responding to one of the topics. In this way the entire dialogue and any posted documents are maintained.
Other applications= e-mail and calendaring.
Most corporate portals either integrate with existing groupware products or imitate their functionality.
Multimedia
Real-time multimedia—sound and video—:
Currently of fairly low quality when viewed or heard on a computer over the Net.
Limiting factor = lack of sufficient bandwidth. The quality of transmission is directly proportional to the bandwidth of the communications channel.
Most users still connect to the Internet with modems operating at 56K or slower.
BUT: growing penetration of high-speed access via cable modems, DSL modems, and wireless technologies.
AND, Cisco systems + other networking companies are working on technologies for increased bandwidth at lower prices.
Multimedia technologies are available:
Conferencing software,
Webcams,
CD-quality audio,
Streaming video,
Internet telephony VoIP.
Multimedia
Conferencing software:
Allows users to hold text, audio, or video conferences over the Internet.
Users can simultaneously work on shared whiteboards using Microsoft NetMeeting.
Webcam:
Hardware device that transmits real-time video image over the Web.
can be used for Internet conferencing or just be fixed on a target.
2 popular Webcam devices= Logitech QuickCamera & Intel’s PC Camera.
Streaming audio:
Delivery of  live or stored audio on demand over the Internet.
Users can start hearing the audio very shortly after clicking on the file without waiting until the entire file is downloaded before playing it.
Sites such as Yahoo! Broadcast use its products to rebroadcast radio, TV, and music over the Internet.
Multimedia
MP3:
Standard for CD-quality audio.
Began almost as a renegade movement that has now become mainstream.
WinAmp = one of the first players to decode MP3 files.
But how does the user find the files online?
Napster = first major service to allow users to share MP3 files from their computers with the entire Net community.
It maintained a database of MP3 availability but did not actually provide the music.
Legal battles with the recording industry finally forced Napster into bankruptcy.
Napster was still hoping to reemerge from bankruptcy thanks to a partnership with Bertelsmann AG.
BUT  Napster may have trouble winning back market share from the hundreds of MP3 search tools and services such as Morpheus.
Multimedia
Streaming video:
Requires more bandwidth than streaming audio.
More heavily constrained by the lack of bandwidth online.
BUT observers see a bright future for live video and video on demand.
broadcast industry and the video rental business could be threatened by its development.
SonicBlue's ReplayTV, a competitor to Sony's TiVo, allows users to record broadcast video and then share it over broadband Internet connections with other SonicBlue users.
Internet telephony:
Transmits phone calls relies on the Web eliminating long-distance charges.
Multimedia
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP):
Major constraint = bandwidth.
Voice quality is quite good, but it is not reliable.
Requires less bandwidth than streaming video, Internet telephony is an attractive business proposition.
Net2Phone offers products that can complete long-distance calls off the Net.
Represents a threat to long-distance phone companies (for international calls).
Assistive Technologies
Designed to help people with disabilities operate their computers.
Potential customers = Millions of people are for these products—not just disabled people.
Assistive technologies do allow persons with certain disabilities to productively enter the workforce:
Voice-activated computers:
Computer can be completely controlled by voice commands.
In call centers, the caller interacts with the computer by speaking commands.
Large-type screen displays. Help people with poor vision see and navigate on their computer screens.
Assistive Technologies
Type-to-speech or braille:
Allows blind people to interact with a computer.
Reads Internet pages aloud.
Technologies are also being built into automobiles such as GM’s OnStar system = drivers can listen to e-mail messages and stock quotes while driving.
Important implications for Web page design = designers avoid graphics since the technology can only read text.
Speech-to-text telephony. The telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) converts speech to text, allowing deaf people to hold telephone conversations or conference online.
Eye gaze-to-type:
People who are completely paralyzed can control a computer using eye gaze-to-type technologies.
The user controls her computer by staring at control buttons on the screen.
Three Types of Convergence
The marketing opportunities in media convergence are tremendous.
3 types of convergence are attracting attention today:
voice, video, and data on corporate networks,
wireless devices and the Web,
the Web with broadcast media.
Voice, Video,
and Data on Corporate Networks
Will allow corporations to have:
 1 single switch for voice, video, and data communications rather than 3 separate systems.
Cisco is leading the charge in this market:
Supporting both the infrastructure and end user appliances such as IP telephones.
Wireless Devices and the Web
Wireless devices:
Cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs),
With Web access + sometimes a global positioning function (GPS),
Race to see whether cell phones or PDAs will become the preferred platform for wireless Internet access,
Many people think these devices are likely to merge = a single device would serve as a combination cell phone, PDA, and Web browser.
Limitations:
The screen size of PDAs & cell phones:
Tiny cell phone screen can be used to check e-mail and retrieve weather, news, and stock quotes.
BUT Web content is designed for color on much larger displays.
Web sites are starting to create content for the Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) so that it displays correctly on these tiny screens.
Interesting application running on a PDA is Auctioneer, used to track eBay auctions.
Wireless Devices and the Web
Bandwidth:
Wireless networks are much slower than land line networks.
BUT the market is growing rapidly.
One technology to watch = WiFi networks built on the Ethernet 802.11b standard + 3G wireless cell phone networks.
Outside of the US, the current & potential market for wireless Web access is greater (a higher penetration rate for mobile phone communications).
Why?
Telephone companies in other countries usually charge by the minute for local calls. Many users conclude that if they are going to be charged by the minute anyway, they might as well have the additional benefit of wireless access.
Consumers in many countries have to wait years for a telephone line to be installed—at a high price.
In Japan, DoCoMo’s i-mode service has attracted millions of users who check weather forecasts, sports scores, maps, stock trading, banking, etc.
Wireless Devices and the Web
Wireless mobility of the future will have 6 components :
Content provider. The firm creating wireless versions of current Web content. This might include sites such as travelocity.com and B2B services such as sales force automation.
Portal software. These firms—such as Yahoo!, AOL, and Microsoft—will provide a higher level of personalization, maintaining user preferences for a wide variety of content.
Data aggregation agent. Companies such as Yodlee, Acxiom, and Microsoft keep track of a user’s login and password information for quick mobile access to banks, stock brokerage accounts, and so forth—a boon to business travelers.
Infrastructure. These firms provide wireless Internet access, parallel to non-mobile ISPs.
Transaction providers. American Express, Visa, and others will serve online retailers by processing payments.
Mobile devices. Cell phones + PDAs, or some convergence of the two platforms, allowing the user to send and receive data.
Broadcast Media and the Internet
iTV (interactive TV):
Convergence is between broadcast media (television and radio) and the Internet.
Result = single appliance to receive broadcast content over the Internet.
Major obstacle = lack of bandwidth to support full-motion video.
Cable modems, DSL modems, and fixed wireless access to the home may provide more bandwidth.
MSN TV:
Users simply browse the Web on a TV screen.
Not very successful because of the low resolution of TV screens + consumers are not used to reading on a TV screen.
ABC’s Enhanced TV:
Users need to log onto ABC’s Web site while they are watching TV.
Users can get more information about the current broadcast, play games with other users, and participate in polls and chats.
Broadcast Media and the Internet
When the bandwidth does become available, it is unlikely that the Web will be used only to serve TV and audio on demand.
A taste of the future = BrilliantDigital produces multipath movies  in which viewers take a more active role.
Future products depend on the telecommunications industry:
Since mid 2000: The industry started to collapse.
$2 trillion lost in valuation + numerous high profile bankruptcies.
Markets were flooded with products and services driving prices down below profitable levels.
The products that survive in the long-term will be those that best deliver customer value.
The Internet Changes Pricing Strategies
Price is:
The amount of money charged for a product or service,
The sum of all the values (such as money, time, energy, and psychic cost) that buyers exchange for the benefits of having or using a good or service,
Set by negotiation between buyers and sellers.
Fixed price policies:
One price for all buyers,
A relatively modern idea = end of the nineteenth century,
Arose with the development of large-scale retailing and mass production.
Now, one hundred years later:
The Internet is taking us back to an era of dynamic pricing:

= Varying prices for individual customers
The Internet Changes Pricing Strategies
In the past, the Internet was used for:
Marketing communication benefits,
Distribution channel benefits.
BUT it has a huge potential to change pricing strategy.
The Internet properties allow for price transparency     = the idea that both buyers and sellers can view all competitive prices for items sold online.
This feature would tend to commoditize products sold online, making the Internet an efficient market.
Buyer and Seller Perspectives
The meaning of price depends on the viewpoint of the buyer and the seller.
Each party to the exchange brings different needs and objectives that help describe a fair price.
In the end, both parties must agree or there is no sale.
Buyer View
For the buyers: values = benefits – costs
The Real Costs
Today’s buyer must be quite sophisticated to understand even the simple dollar cost of a product.
The seller’s price may or may not include shipping, tax, and other seemingly hidden elements (costs revealed online at the last screen of a shopping experience).
Promotion of a new pricing scheme for a long distance telephone company:
Complex deals,
Some carriers advertise “$0.07 a minute, period.”
The Real Costs
How about the time, energy, and psychic costs that add to a buyer’s monetary costs?
Sometimes:
The Net is slow,
Information is hard to find,
Other technological problems,
Users can spend more time and energy & become frustrated (psychic cost).
The Real Costs
Shopping agents will find the lowest prices online, but the search adds to the time cost.
A search for the lowest airfare at Orbitz.com or Travelocity.com can be minimal compared to the dollar savings,
BUT the same may not be true for a book price search.
It depends on:
The time it takes to search & the savings as a percentage of the item cost,
How much familiarity and experience the buyer has with the search engine.
As bandwidth increases, technology evolves, and firms develop better online strategies, some of these costs will decline.
Buyer Control
The change in power from seller to buyer affects pricing.
Reverse auction:
Buyers set prices for new products and sellers decide whether or not to accept these prices.
Example = Priceline.com.
In the B2B market: buyers bid for excess inventory at exchanges + for products at firms such as Caterpillar.
In the B2G market :
Government buyers put out a request for proposal for materials & labor needed,
Businesses bid for the work,
The government buyer selects the lowest price = having control over the exchange.
Buyer Control
Buyer power online is based largely on the huge quantity of information & product availability on the Web.
Online buyers are becoming more sophisticated.
Sellers are more willing to negotiate = giving power to buyers in the exchange.
Sellers realize that information technology can help them better manage inventories & automate frequent price changes.
Buyer View
Buyers often enjoy many online cost savings:
The Net is convenient:
It is open 24/7 = users can research, shop, consume entertainment anytime.
E-mail allows asynchronous communication among users at any location and prevents “telephone tag” with sellers.
The Net is fast:
Users can order a product and receive it the following day.
Self-service saves time:
Customers can track shipments, pay bills, trade securities, check account balances, and handle many other activities without waiting for sales reps.
Users can request product information at Web sites and receive it immediately.
Buyer View
One-stop shopping saves time:
Increase customer convenience,
AutoMall Online = partner with a number of firms to provide automobile price comparisons, research about various models and manufacturers, financing and insurance information, and service options.
Integration saves time:
Web portals ( Yahoo! and AOL) = allow users to quickly find many things they want online.
Some sites allow users to create individualized Web pages with news, stock quotes, weather, and other customized information.
Automation saves energy:
Customers value simplicity and ease BUT the Net makes some activities more complex, technology can help.
Customer computers can keep track of passwords for Web sites and to track previous purchases at Web sites save time and energy.
Buyer View
Not everyone wants to save money in online transactions.
Customer needs and their view of the value proposition vary,
= Each individual weighs the desired and perceived benefits against all the costs.
Example of the value equation tradeoffs = online auctions:
Called “the winner’s curse,”  = Some people actually pay a higher price for auctioned products than they would pay an online retailer,
In the B2B market: car dealers pay significantly more for used automobiles online than they do offline.
Buyer View
Some people prefer to order books from Amazon.com with overnight delivery, knowing that:
Amazon prices are often higher than other online booksellers,
The book is in stock at a local bookstore,
Overnight delivery costs quite a bit more.
So, why?
The Amazon brand name is trustworthy,
These customers have had excellent previous experiences with Amazon,
They are familiar with the site and can quickly find what they need,
Those benefits and time/energy-saving features overcome the higher expense.
Seller View
Price = the amount of money they receive from buyers.

Pricing floor = seller costs for producing the good or service,
Under, no profit is made,
Above, marketers set a price to draw buyers from competing offers,
Price - Cost = Profit
Factors affecting pricing levels:
Internal factors = the firm’s strengths and weaknesses from:
Its SWOT analysis,
Its overall pricing objectives,
Its marketing mix strategy,
The costs involved in producing and marketing the product.
External factors = the market structure & the buyer’s perspective.
Internal Factors: Pricing Objectives
Profit-oriented objective (most common strategy) :
Focuses on current profit maximization rather than long-term performance,
First estimate what demand and costs will be at different prices,
Then choose the price that will produce the maximum current profit, cash flow, ROI.
Market-oriented objective:
Building a larger customer base = lower costs & higher long-run profit,
Low prices generally build market share.
AOL broadband Internet connection services is low to increase market share.
Product-quality leadership = high price to cover higher performance quality and high cost of R&D.
Negotiation and bidding.
Competition-based pricing objective:
Price according to what competitors charge for similar products, paying less attention to the company's own costs or to demand.
When one airline drops prices, its competitors usually follow suit.
The Internet gives firms quicker access to competitive price changes.
Internal Factors: Marketing Mix Strategy
Successful companies use an integrated and consistent marketing mix strategy.
Volvo = upscale brand image:
Sells high priced automobiles through dealerships,
Marketing communication = a Web site + offline,
More than 80% of its customers shop online,
Highly educated men + live in urban areas = configure a new Volvo on the Web site, price it, + talk to dealers via e-mail ( Dealers close 10-15% of these leads).
Volvo uses the Internet to generate sales leads, knowing that its customers are not likely to buy a high priced item directly from the Internet.
The Internet is one sales channel + must be used in concert with other marketing mix elements.
No proven rules or standard practices on how to price the same product for sale in both online and offline channels.
Internal Factors: Information Technology Affects Costs
The Internet Puts Upward Pressure on Prices:
Reason of the dot-coms failure = expensive customer relationship management + other software that did not generate new revenue to cover the sites’ costs.
Factors that put upward pressure on Internet pricing:
Distribution:
“The last mile” problem = each product must be shipped separately to its destination.
Retailers pass shipping costs on to their customers & reveal it at the conclusion of the order.
Some vendors inflate the shipping cost to recoup some of the discount offered.
Affiliate programs:
Affiliate sponsors reward the referring Web sites 7- 15% commission on each reference that leads to a sale.
This commission inflates the price of the item or lowers company profits.
Internal Factors: Information Technology Affects Costs
Site development and maintenance:
Web site development and maintenance is not cheap.
Development of  a “conservative” site = $10,000 - $100,000, an “aggressive” site = $1 million or more.
Maintenance = expensive, with hardware, software, and monthly Internet connection costs.

Customer acquisition costs (CAC).
The cost of acquiring new customers online is quite high,
The average CAC for online retailers is $82.
How many orders must a firm receive to recoup that cost, and at what price? BUT customers are not nearly as brand loyal online as offline.
Internal Factors: Information Technology Affects Costs
The Internet Puts Downward Pressure on Prices:
Order processing—self-service:
Customers fill out their own order forms = no order entry personnel & paper processing.
Average retail banking transaction costs $0.15 - $0.20 online versus $1.50 offline.
Just-in-time inventory:
Electronic data interchange (EDI) drives down costs by coordinating value-chain activities & allows for just-in-time (JIT) delivery of parts and reduced inventories.
Some online retailers and offline retailers do not even hold inventory but buy in response to customer orders.
Overhead:
Online storefronts lower overhead costs = no rent for retail space & staff .
Warehouses can be located in areas with low rents, low wages, low taxes, and quick access to shipping hubs.
Internal Factors: Information Technology Affects Costs
Customer service:
$15 - $20 in an offline call center versus $3 - $5 when customers help themselves on the Internet.
Printing and mailing:
No mail distribution & printing costs for their product catalogs.
Once the catalog is placed online, access carries little or no incremental costs.
The same holds true for e-mail promotions.
Digital product distribution costs:
Distribution costs for digital products are extremely low in the Internet channel.
External Factors Affecting Online Pricing: Market Structure
Economists recognize 4 types of markets:
Pure competition:
Many buyers and sellers trading in a uniform commodity ( corn ).
Product differentiation, and marketing communication play little or no role.
Monopolistic competition:
Many buyers and sellers trade over a range of prices.
Sellers can differentiate their offers to buyers.
Oligopolistic competition:
A few sellers sensitive to each other’s pricing and marketing strategies.
If a company drops its price,  buyers will quickly switch to this supplier.
Pure monopoly:
This market consists of one seller whose prices are usually regulated by the government.
External Factors Affecting Online Pricing: Efficient Markets
Efficient markets:
Experience perfect price competition.
Customers have equal access to information about products, prices, and distribution. 
Lower prices, high price elasticity, frequent price changes, smaller price changes, and narrow price dispersion.
Commodity markets came close to being efficient until the government intervened with controls.
The Internet is close to an efficient markets but the behavior of consumers on the Internet does not bear out all of the economists’ predictions.
External Factors Affecting Online Pricing: Efficient Markets
Is The Net an Efficient Market?
The Net present all symptoms of efficient markets,
Access to information through corporate Web sites, shopping agents, and distribution channels.
Products sold exhibit lower prices, high price elasticity, frequent price changes, and smaller price changes.
BUT do these factors actually make the Net an efficient market?
Lower costs can result in lower prices for consumers,
Technology enables buyers to evaluate and demand appealing prices.
Research shows that online prices for books and CDs are indeed lower by 9% to 16%.
Does that mean that all prices online are lower?  No but many factors place a downward pressure on Internet prices, contributing to efficiency.
Efficient Markets
Shopping agents (www.pricescan.com):
Facilitate consumer searches for low prices by displaying the results in a comparative format. 
High price elasticity:
Price elasticity refers to the variability of purchase behavior with changes in price.
Leisure travel is very elastic: When the airlines engage in fare wars, consumers snap up ticket inventories creating huge demand.
For books and CDs, the online market is more elastic than the offline market.
Reverse auctions:
Allow buyers to name their price and have sellers try to match that price.
This pits sellers against one another and usually drives prices down.
Efficient Markets
Tax-free zones:
Most online retailing takes place across state lines,
Buyers pay no sales taxes on purchases,
Reduce total out-of-pocket expenditures by 5-8% per transaction.
Venture capital:
Venture capital/angel investors finance many Internet companies,
They take a long-term view & are willing to sustain short-term losses (<5 years) = time to establish brand equity + grab market share,
No profit-maximization pricing objective = can offer lower price, 
BUT changes are coming ( the dot-com crash +the 5-year time frames are over for many early Net firms).
Efficient Markets
Competition:
Fierce and very visible.
Frequent price changes (than the offline market) :
Online suppliers want to attract price-sensitive consumers,
Vendors alter their pricing to place higher on the results provided by shopping agents,
In a computerized environment firms can offer volume discounts in smaller increments,
Experimentation is easy online, firms see how demand changes + adjust & change prices as competition and other factors emerge.
Efficient Markets
Lower costs:
Result in either higher profits or lower prices.
Smaller price change increments:
Smallest offline price change = $0.35 / online = $0.01,
Price-sensitive consumers may respond to even a small price advantage,
Shopping agents rank their results by price (even small advantage earn a higher ranking),
It is difficult to change prices offline = retailers wait until the need for a price change is even greater.
Is The Net an Inefficient Market?
The Web does not act like an efficient market with respect to narrow price dispersion:
Prices tend to equalize in commodities markets,
Online retailer branding and other benefits justify price differences in the minds of customers.
Greater spread was found between high/low prices online versus high/low prices offline for the same items:33% for books and 25% for CDs,
The online channel is still not completely mature = many buyers do not know about or use shopping agents.
Related to the way goods are priced online as well as delivery options, time-sensitive shoppers, branding, differentiation, switching costs, and second-generation shopping agents.
How goods are priced online:
Offline = fixed prices,
Online = goods are available for a fixed, a dynamically updated, or an auction price,
PLUS, shipping & special services make it difficult to compare  products.
Is The Net an Inefficient Market?
Delivery options:
The same product delivered under differing conditions (time and place) have different value to the consumer.
A product delivered to the door may have considerably more value for some consumers than one that is bought at the store = Online grocery shopping.
Time-sensitive shoppers:
Time-sensitive shoppers may not wish to invest the time and energy required to track down the best price (complexity of the sites).
Branding:
The top Web sites get most of the traffic,
Consumers show a preference for brand when using shopping agents even if that brand does not offer the lowest price,
The best-branded Web sites spend millions of dollars to attract customers: Amazon spends 24% of revenues on promotion, but it can charge 7-12% more than bargain online retailers.
Is The Net an Inefficient Market?
Differentiation:
Strong branding = perceived/real product differentiation + different pricing strategy.
Switching costs:
Customers face switching costs when they choose a different online retailer.
Some customers are not willing to incur those costs and stick with a familiar online retailer.
Why? The customer loses access to a familiar interface.
In the B2B market: it is more effective to build relationships with a limited number of suppliers rather than offer all items out for bid.
Is The Net an Inefficient Market?
Second-generation shopping agents:
Guide the consumer through the process of quantifying benefits + evaluating the value equation.
For benefits ranked high, customers may be willing to pay more.
BizRate allows consumers to evaluate merchants based on ratings compiled from previous customers.
Is the Internet an efficient market? Not yet, BUT it has all the features to move toward efficiency in the future.
Pricing Strategies
Price setting is full of contradictions:
Short term: If the price is too low profits will suffer/ if it is too high sales decline.
In the long run: an initial low price that builds market share can create economies of scale to lower costs + increase profits.
Information technology has complicated pricing:
Sellers can easily change prices according to each buyer’s previous behavior.
BUT it is a steep learning curve.
Pricing objectives produce very different results = a low price will build market share at the expense of maximizing profit.
Buyer value perceptions vary between rational and emotional, and not everyone reacts the same way.
Firms using multichannel delivery systems must consider the varying costs of each channel and buyers’ differing value perceptions about purchasing on the Internet versus the brick and mortar store.
Pricing is a tricky business, guided by data, experience, and experimentation.
Fixed Pricing
Fixed pricing (also called menu pricing):
Sellers set the price and buyers take it or leave it = same price for everyone.
This is the model most brick-and-mortar retailers use.
Two common fixed pricing strategies used online:
Price leadership:
A price leader = lowest-priced product entry + set the pace for other retailers.
To implement this strategy, costs must be minimum.
Largest producer = price leader because of economies of scale.
The second-lowest-priced item also gain sales, especially if it offers advantages over the price leader.
Fixed Pricing
Two common fixed pricing strategies used online:
Promotional pricing:
Used to encourage a first purchase, encourage repeat business, and close a sale.
Carry an expiration date to create a sense of urgency.
Promotional pricing on the Internet can be highly targeted through e-mail messages and research shows high customer satisfaction with Internet purchases.
Dynamic Pricing
The strategy of offering different prices to different customers.
To optimize inventory management,
To segment customers by product use or other variables.
Airlines have long used dynamic pricing software to price air travel.
Web-based technology + database marketing make this pricing strategy much more practical for companies to apply to segments of any size.
Online music retailer CDNow offers lower prices on selected products to loyal customers,
These customers receive an e-mail message directing them to a special Web page to view and buy these featured products.
With the right technology, segments as small as one can be targeted with different prices
Prices can be changed daily or even hourly,
Depending on changes in demand, supply, competition, costs, or other factors.
Dynamic Pricing
XML and other technologies make dynamic Web page serving possible.
Allows database information to be consolidated in a recipe for a Web page.
Marketers can update product databases instantly and continuously as new product features are developed and as they decide on price adjustments.
Internet users receive up-to-date price information on demand from product databases (information change with the time and user).
Dynamic Pricing
Dynamic pricing can be initiated by the seller or the buyer.
2 types of dynamic pricing:

Segmented pricing = the company sells a good/service at two or more prices, based on segment differentiation rather than cost alone. Segmented pricing is usually set by the seller.
Negotiation = the company negotiates prices with individual customers. Segmented pricing involves a one-time price = may be different for different customers + may change many times before buyers and sellers agree. Negotiation is more often initiated by the buyer.
Segmented Pricing
Uses the Internet properties for mass customization, automatically devising pricing based on order size and timing, demand and supply levels, and other preset decision factors.
The firm uses decision rules to set pricing levels for segments of customers according to customer behavior.
Is easier online at the individual level because sophisticated software permits firms to set rules and make price changes.
Using cookie files, online sellers recognize individuals and experiment with offers and prices to motivate transactions: Presents customized recommendations to each customer.
Online firms can build loyalty programs, like frequent flyer programs, to offer special prices to individuals who return and purchase often.
Segmented Pricing
Effective when the market is segmentable,
The different prices reflect real differences in each segment's perceptions of the product's value + show different degrees of demand.
Appropriate when the costs of segmentation + segmented pricing do not exceed the extra revenue obtained from the price difference.
The firm’s segmented pricing must meet legal and regulatory guidelines.
The firm must take care not to upset customers who learn they are getting different prices than their neighbors.
E-marketers employing segmentation must use customer accepted reasons = discounts to new/loyal customers.
Geographic Segment Pricing
A company sets different prices when selling a product in different geographic areas.
Seller knows where the user resides because server logs register the user’s IP address + the top level domain name typically indicates country of residence.
Geographic pricing can help a company better relate its pricing to country-by-country or regional factors = competitive pressure, local costs, economic conditions, legal or regulatory guidelines, and distribution opportunities.
The manufacturer faces price escalation and must price to reflect the higher costs of transportation, tariffs, and importer margins, among other costs involved in selling in different locations.
Given the Internet’s worldwide reach, marketers also may display a special Web page to those coming in from markets it does not serve = This helps to build goodwill for the firm’s brand.
Value Segment Pricing
The seller recognizes that not all customers provide equal value to the firm.
Pareto Principle states that 80% of a firm’s business usually comes from the top 20% of customers.
A+ customers:
A small group that contribute disproportionately to the firm’s revenues and profits.
The most loyal customers who may become brand advocates to their friends and acquaintances = The frequent flyers.
They are also brand-loyal frequent customers who provide significant value to the seller.
When A+ or A customers appear at the Web site, they will be recognized and receive special attention.
They may not be price sensitive = they perceive that the brand/firm offers greater benefits + has earned their loyalty.
Value Segment Pricing
B customers are price sensitive + use the product category more than do C customers.
C customers: large group + may be price shoppers or infrequent users of the product category, not accounting for much of the seller’s revenue.
The seller’s goal is to keep A customers brand loyal and to move all groups up to a higher level of value.
Pricing strategies can help.
Giving high-value customers the first shot at discounts will reinforce their loyalty.
B and C customers: might enjoy e-mail blasts with fixed prices so they can be informed of the firm’s price +The seller can use this technique to build a database for moving customers up in value.
Negotiated Pricing
Through negotiation the price is set more than once in a back and forth discussion.
Haggling over price is common in many countries; but U.S. consumers have shied away from such bargaining.
The spectacular growth of online auctions is changing this.
Many consumers enjoy the sport and community of an auction while others are just looking for a good deal.
Auctions in the B2B market are a very effective way to unload surplus inventory at a price set by the market.
Bartering
Goods or services are exchanged for other products rather than cash.
Users may enjoy tax benefits, but otherwise this is not a particularly profitable pricing strategy.
Consumers exchanging/auctioning used items online can hurt sales of new products.
Module 7
Evaluating performance and opportunities
Online Expression
The mass distribution of unsolicited electronic mail = Spam
Users complain of unwanted intrusion into their affairs,
Information given to individuals or entities for one purpose may be collected and sold for mass distribution.
Regulation needs to be approached with caution: It implicates freedom of expression.
Disagreement between:
Those who believe that participation in mass emails should be restricted to those who voluntarily agree to receive mailing,
Those who advocate an opt-out only approach.
Online Expression
ISP:
Questions about the liability of network owners for defamatory messages posted on its bulletin boards or other public areas,
For most courts like publishers, ISP’s are not normally susceptible to suit.
Regulations for children’s content: use of filtering models have been considered.
The Platform for Internet Content Selection Rules (PICS): allows the filtering of sites which are deemed to be inappropriate for minors placing control into the hands of parents and schools.
Emerging Issues
A number of issues have arisen which are particularly unique to the Internet at its current stage of its development.
The responses are requiring imagination & creativity. 
Online Governance and ICANN
Need: A private, non-profit regulatory body which would be responsible for the administration of the Internet name and address system.
Answer: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
Purpose: The resolution of conflicts which surround the assignment and possession of domains.
Today, ICANN is comprised of a governing board which currently faces substantial criticism for operating under secrecy and for failing to represent the broad range of online users.
Many questions remain concerning the ability of any private regulatory organization to enforce its decisions within the online community.

Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is the legal term which describes the ability of a court or other authority to gain control over a party.
Jurisdiction is traditionally based upon physical presence, but within the online world, commonality of physical location is never assured.
The majority of cases decided within the United States have focused upon the character and quality of contacts with the forum state, generally, the more active the involvement, the more likely that jurisdiction will be conferred.
Jurisdiction
Virtual Magistrate, mediation-oriented programs, have been developed to resolve online disputes.
= Attempt to tailor their procedures toward the special circumstances of the Internet:
Advocates argue that their online orientation will encourage users to work out difficulties within a non-confrontational framework,
Critics voice concerns that online arbitration cannot adequately ensure enforcement or recognition of their judgments.
Jurisdiction
International disputes:
Goal: achieve a level of international cooperation is through the mediation of organizations.
The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center exists to resolve commercial disputes relating to intellectual property.
The Model Law on Electronic Commerce by the United Nations Commission of International Trade Law provides  global uniformity in digital commerce.
Fraud
The use of deception and false claims to obtain profit is not unique to the Internet.
The technical nature of networked communication
The average person is not in a position to understand exactly how information is displayed, transferred or stored and this lack of knowledge provides opportunities for novel deceptions.
E.g. of abuse = Spoofing:
Use of email or Web sites to impersonate individuals or corporations,
Used to extract sensitive information by leading a user to believe that a request is coming from a reputable source.
Fraud
The psychology of digital environments. The media is full of stories concerning technological advances and opportunities for profit.
Most people are unable to differentiate genuinely worthwhile endeavors from those presented by mere opportunists.
Many investment opportunities make use of The Digital Revolution, often promoting breakthrough technologies and applications.
Fraud
The problem of consumer fraud is being addressed on several dimensions:
Federal agencies (the FTC and the FBI) have increased their efforts to track and prosecute fraudulent conduct,
State agencies have begun to prosecute criminal activity within their borders.
Sanctions = stipulated lifetime bans in the conduct of Internet commerce, civil judgments, forfeiture of property and referrals for criminal prosecution.
The establishment and prosecution of laws are necessary responses to the problem of fraud.
Fraud
The basis of fraud is usually incomplete or false information.
Ability to evaluate online material is a primary importance.
Solutions include:
Promotion and adherence to codes of ethics are one means of inspiring consumer confidence,
Encouragement of general consumer education, Professional associations have particular abilities to establish sites which outline and explain minimum standards and consumer protections.


1 comment:

Faizan Chaudhary said...

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