consumer buying behavior research

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Journal of Knowledge Globalization, Volume 8, Number 2, 2015

Management, Strategies, Tools, and Practices in

eMarketing

Sirous Tabrizi

University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada

Mohammad Kabirnejat

Islamic Azad University, Hashtrood Branch, Iran

Abstract

Globalization has resulted in significant changes in the way business is conducted

all over the world. For instance, outsourcing specialist jobs, alliances among large

multinational companies, and high degree of government involvement in markets

have all forced companies to adjust their structures, practices, and policies. For

marketers, two major changes have influenced their practices: increasingly global

demographic and deeper customer engagement. Since “push” advertising is

becoming increasingly irrelevant, companies need to do more outside the

traditional marketing approaches. emarketing is one of the new approaches

towards marketing that shows significant promise, especially given the

increasingly dominant role played by the Internet in society and popular culture.

This article discusses some of the changes necessary to take an e-marketing

approach in a business, and focus specifically on several important instruments

(the SOSTAC and SMART frameworks) that can help develop consistent

strategies. Some conjectured examples are presented to help understand the main

argument.

Keywords: Globalization, eMarketing, SOSTAC, SMART, branding, marketing

mix, emarketing management style

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Tabrizi and Kabirnejat: eMarketing

Introduction

Globalization has resulted in significant changes in the way business is conducted

all over the world. For instance, numerous companies including such as IBM,

Microsoft, and Philips have started outsourcing specialists from various parts of

the world, enabling global movement of people for jobs and requiring structural

changes to the company (Engardio, Bernstein, & Kripalani, 2003). In addition ,

globalization has had a positive effect on the economic situation of many

developing countries, such as China, India and Bangladesh. However, companies

all over the world have to take the practical marketing strategies to give better

services to customers.

Philip Kotler, who is considered as the father of modern marketing, by many,

defines marketing as “the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering

value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. Marketing identifies

unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines, measures, and quantifies the size of the

identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints which segments the

company is capable of serving best and it designs and promotes the appropriate

products and services” (Kotler, 2005; p.10).

In the specific case of e-marketing , a more comprehensive and practical definition

is provided by specialists at CISCO: “Electronic Marketing (E-Marketing) is a

generic term utilized for a wide range of activities -advertising, customer

communications, branding, fidelity programs etc. - using the internet” (Otlacan,

2007). In other words, E-Marketing is the process of finding, attracting, winning,

and retaining customers through electronic means (Stokes, 2008). Primarily this

is accomplished through the Internet but also through e-mail, social networking,

and various forms of wireless media. Hence, it is not just producing a website but

through facilitating online dialog between consumers and the company (Stokes,

2008).

“E-Marketing is also known as Internet Marketing, Web Marketing, Digital

Marketing, and Online Marketing” (Levinson & Neitlich, 2011, p. 89). It includes

both direct response marketing and indirect marketing elements, and is a continual

process rather than something which is executed only once. The messages and

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Journal of Knowledge Globalization, Volume 8, Number 2, 2015

stories developed through traditional marketing can be improved through

technology and electronic means in a variety of ways.

eMarketing adds new dimensions and meaning to traditional marketing. Such as

reach, scope, interactivity, immediacy, demographic, supply chain, value chain,

and financial chain.

Reach:

Due to the nature of the Internet, E-Marketing can have a global reach and access

potential customers from all over the world. This can also be performed on a much

smaller budget than what was normally necessary for a comparable reach (Dann

& Dann, 2011).

Scope:

E-Marketing allows a variety of methods for reaching customers and enables a

wide range of products and services that can be offered. Therefore, the marketing

of a product is combined with other areas such as brand formation, public

relations, customer service, and information management in a way that was

traditionally not possible (Dann & Dann, 2011).

Interactivity:

Since E-Marketing is a dialog between customers and companies, there is a degree

of interaction between the two that does not exist in traditional marketing.

Companies can use the responses, complaints, and commendations of customers

to further develop their brands and better their own image (Krishnamurthy, 2006).

On the other hand, customers feel more engaged with the company and can

become empowered to promote the product through their own actions and

discussions. The marketing landscape thus becomes more dynamic, adaptive, and

capable of achieving faster and deeper growth.

Immediacy:

The Internet, being pervasive and always accessible, provides a constant and

continual means through which customers can be engaged and view and buy

products. E-Marketing effectively closes the gap between providing information,

advertising, and buy opportunities and eliciting a reaction from customers

(Krishnamurthy, 2006; Dann & Dann, 2011).

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Tabrizi and Kabirnejat: eMarketing

Demographics:

Generally speaking, Internet users have a significant buying power, as they are

skewed towards the middle-classes, and are often capable of organizing

themselves into focused groupings and sub-populations (Krishnamurthy, 2006;

Dann & Dann, 2011). As such, savvy marketers can find access to desired niche

markets in addition to being able to easily and effective target such groups

(Parsons, & Maclaran, 2009).

Literature

From the very beginning, marketing in the 21st century has been different.

Marketers today have a greater number and variety of choices in support, media

opportunities, and methods of communications but they also face increasing

competition due to the Internet facilitating virtual competition (Andreasen, 2006).

E-marketing is the application of marketing techniques, principles, and practices

using electronic media, especially the Internet (Pride & Ferrell, 2011). It

encompasses all the activities which a company conducts through the Internet so

as to attract new business, retain current business, or develop its brand identity. In

an analysis of e-business components and accepted marketing concepts, Albert

and Sanders (2003) developed this definition:

“E-business marketing is a concept and process of adapting the relevant and

current technologies to the philosophy of marketing and its management. Focused

attention on the areas of e-commerce, business intelligence, customer relationship

management, supply chain management, and enterprise resource planning provide

a framework for effective adaptation. Although the electronic environment

experiences rapid changes, the reliance on proven marketing models, in these

areas, ensures continuity of the marketing process both online and off-line.” (P.

10)

Management for E-Marketing

Management plays an important role in E-Marketing, one which establishes the

system for decision making, improving customer knowledge, efficient targeting

of advertising, and so on (Chan, 2005). The style of management is an important

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Journal of Knowledge Globalization, Volume 8, Number 2, 2015

consideration when attempting to implement any E-Marketing plan (Chan, 2005).

Generally speaking, there are two kinds of management styles - centralized and

decentralized - though there is a range of styles between those two values (Albert

& Sanders, 2003). Although the approach style depends on the size of the

company and the management context, for E-Marketing it is generally better to

use a decentralized approach.

In a decentralized approach, decision making authority is distributed throughout

a larger group such that lower level individuals have higher authority than they

would in other contexts (Daft & Marcic, 2005). For E-Marketing, this is valuable

for adapting to customer feedback, responding positively to emerging trends, and

providing opportunities for individual employees to engage with customers in a

more natural manner. Given that decision making is distributed across the group,

it also enables customers to be part of the decision-making process without

jeopardizing the authority of the company. Hence, companies can learn the desires

and interests of the customers, so as to better market products to them, while

customers can feel as though the company takes them seriously and are able to

form stronger attachment to company brands (Pride & Ferrell, 2011).

However, a decentralized management style can be problematic in terms of

cooperation. Since all individuals in the decision-making process have similar

authority, they may refuse to cooperate or may go in completely different

directions for solving some problem (Daft & Marcic, 2005). Hence, the role of a

manager becomes one who guides other employees with common vision, goals,

and objectives so that there is cooperation in terms of results. Each individual

should be able to use their own strengths to accomplish the goal. In order to

accomplish this , managers need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of

the employees and be able to create objectives that can be tailor to specific

strengths. Managers cannot do this unless they have the desire to know and

understand others: other employees and the customers (Daft & Marcic, 2005).

This desire to know others, for the purpose of cooperation, is part of what is

commonly called a social-justice leader. Hence, the role of management in E-

Marketing is to provide leadership in cooperation, in understanding the desires

and strengths of others, and being able to guide by objectives and by example.

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Tabrizi and Kabirnejat: eMarketing

Management for emarketing needs different kind of skills set and leadership style

than in-person marketing. In marketing most leadership functions are exerted

through technology rather than face-to-face. There is an absolute need to have a

clear and well defined system of management control for feedback and

motivation. A manager must have online communication proficiency,

comfortable with tools and techniques and must follow etiquette of online

communication. Managers and the employees mush have real-time access to

reports, feedback, updates and guidelines.

Strategy

Once good objectives have been identified it is time to develop a strategy. For

example, consider a company with a 40% market share with their phone card. A

possible objective would be to increase that market share to 45% or to 60%, either

of which will have different hurdles to overcome. What strategy would be

developed? It could be through increasing sales, through building a better brand,

through reducing the price of the product, and so on. However, some strategies

may not be appropriate for the objective. For instance, improving the quality of

the product may not increase market share but instead would be better for an

objective of maintaining a hold on the existing 40%. As well, some strategies may

be more time intensive than others. For instance, consider a brand name of this

phone card as the CC Phone Card. Improving the brand of CC may be difficult in

an English context due to the similarity of the name with the English word “sissy”,

an already derogatory and insulting name. It may be easier to use a different name

of the card in an English context, and keep the name for a context where the sound

does not have the same connotation. For instance, in Spanish CC is similar to

saying “Yes Yes”, which may have a positive connotation. Hence, the calling card

could be marketed as CC in Spanish areas but something else in English areas.

Tactics

Once the overall strategy has been developed, it is necessary to make that strategy

achievable in a practical sense. Since a strategy is very general and may be meant

for years, it is difficult for individual employees to determine how they can be

involved in accomplishing it. Thus, a series of tactics will be useful. These are

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short-term or small-scope sets of actions that employees can perform so as to

accomplish the strategy. While still somewhat general, so that each employee can

apply their own strengths to it, these are far more focused in intention and may be

directed to specific groups of employees or even specific employees.

For instance, consider the strategy of improving the brand name. Some tactics

could involve advertising campaigns, engaging with customer groups, providing

information for blogs to get the name out there in the Internet, monitoring the

response of different groups, and so on. No employee would do all of these things;

they would only focus on one or two while others would engage in the remaining

tactics. Similarly, tactics are meant to change regularly as the strategy is put into

action.

Action

Once the tactics have been identified, employees engage in daily and weekly

actions for implementing them. Therefore, the actions are the realm of each

employee. However, monitoring these actions to identify problems and measure

progress is important. One effective means for doing so is through using Gantt

charts. These charts are meant for identifying how long certain actions may take,

and can be updated regularly by employees so that progress in accomplishing an

action is easily identifiable. Similarly, by allowing employees to monitor their

own progress, it reduces the likelihood of managerial interruption and the negative

aspects of managerial control.

Control

The SOSTAC framework is a continuous one, which involves a cycle of steps.

The final step of control is there to allow reflection, monitoring of results, and a

means of adapting to new circumstances. As progress in implementing an E-

Marketing plan occurs, it is important to identify markers of progress and

problems. In doing so, it becomes possible to take advantage of positive

circumstances for a company (such as a new fad being developed around the

product) and to quickly respond to problems (such as a viral video depicting the

product as bad). Hence, this step is meant to continually monitor the environment

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Tabrizi and Kabirnejat: eMarketing

surrounding the product to ensure progress continues to be made in achieving the

objectives.

Finding

It is important to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the company in different

areas. For instance, what is the product being developed? What strengths does this

company have in developing and marketing that product? What weaknesses are

there and how can the company change to eliminate those weaknesses? While

many possible areas could be examined, Table 2 below contains an example of

critical areas to consider first.

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Table 2: Marketing Strengths and Weaknesses for a Company

Now that company’s situation is well analyzed, it is time to examine competitors.

This involves researching who they are, how they compete against your company

Marketing Mix Strength Weakness Action Required

Product (Calling Card) High

quality

High quality. Low product

differentiation (not

unique).

Reduce cost of card

possibly through lower

quality.

Decent packaging.

Price ($5.00 CA) Cheaper than some

competitors.

Not leader in

lowest price.

Decrease price to

remain competitive.

Accessible to r

customers.

Place (Distribution through Available in many

stores, and

different chains.

Sales dependent

on store hours.

brick--and--mortar stores) Available in several

countries.

No online

distribution.

Promotion (Word-of-mouth

advertising)

Very low cost. Not innovative

compared to online

options.

Promotional prizes of

discounts for frequent

users.

Service Reliable service. Cards with very

People (Customers and

Employees)

Usable by people

from many different

nationalities and

languages.

Low integration

in non-immigrant

North American

market.

Processes Cards are easily and

efficiently

produced.

Selling through

distributors

distances

company from

customers.

Physicals (the physical

calling card)

Cards do not easily

break. Card is good

size and shape.

Suggestions of

scratch pad on

back being

carcinogenic.

Numbers on back

are hard to read

for many people.

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Tabrizi and Kabirnejat: eMarketing

in terms of products, what overlap exists between products, how market share is

divided between the companies, and what strategies your company has for dealing

with competition.

Table 3: Competition Analysis

Main Competitors Strengths Weaknesses Our Strategy to

Compete

Rechargeable cards.

Rechargeable online,

no need to constantly

buy new cards.

People who have

difficulty using

computers or

Take an analyzer

approach to

competing.

Account summaries of

calls, minutes, costs,

easily accessible.

People who lack a

credit card cannot

be customers.

Engage in horizontal

integration. For

example, combine

reviewing remaining

balance on a card

with other existing

services.

Online purchasing of

cards.

Limited offline

purchasing.

Take a reactive

approach to

competing.

Cost comparison of

different brands on

their website to find

cheapest card

available.

Only available in

major countries.

Ensure our card is

available in same

location as theirs.

Available in a variety

of countries.

expand availability to

other areas. Offline

competition remains

very strong.

Angry Calling Card

BB Calling Card

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Journal of Knowledge Globalization, Volume 8, Number 2, 2015

Conclusion

E-Marketing allows companies to reach a much wider audience for products and

services that are traditionally possible, and engage in a productive dialog with

customers and the managers that takes the traditional method of marketing to a

newer level. However, developing and implementing an e-marketing plan is very

complex. Not only do we have to come up with appropriate ideas and strategies

but also it is the point where a company discovers whether an idea is actually

going to work in practice. Critical to the success of implementing a plan is the

original objectives setting process. Objectives that are unclear will result in

unfocused and potentially unproductive actions.

Despite the importance of e-marketing in businesses, the theory is difficult to

actualize in practice for companies operating within countries where the citizens

has limited or restricted Internet access. Other cultural or normative practices can

also lead to difficulties. For instance, in a multi-lingual country, such as Iran, the

communication between customers and a company will greatly benefit from

having a variety of languages available for customers to engage in business. If

someone in one part of the country wants to speak with a marketing representative

in Arabic, the company will greatly benefit by having a representative who is able

to communicate in Arabic. However, if management does not see the value in

having alternative languages available, they may lose the opportunity of engaging

with a potentially significant portion of the country’s population.

The complexity of the E-Marketing environment and the number of variables in

the marketing strategy mean that the company have plenty of choice when it

comes to determining a specific implementation approach. Therefore,

measurement and analysis at all stages is crucial to ensure the plan is on track, to

identify when it falls off track, and how to take action to get back on track and

continue.

Effective E-Marketing requires knowledgeable management and manpower, such

that traditional management models like “top-down management” is not

appropriate.. In addition, the needs of E-Marketing customers should be the top

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Tabrizi and Kabirnejat: eMarketing

priority; engendering customer commitment and loyalty are extremely important.

Hence, management must be even more serious in its attempts to supply the needs

of customers.

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