Customer Engagement through Online Marketing - Coursework Example

Thinking piece Filter information The internet and internet related technologies have emerged as some of the greatest influences on marketing more so in gathering information. Information is collected and used in value creating activities in the value chain. One of the most notable contributions is enabling organizations to be more responsive to market conditions and customer needs. As such, organisations have changed from focusing on the old conception of supply chain as inbound to a new one that is outcomes-driven based on information collected. The internet has opened up a new door for marketing and online transactions. This has been also very helpful in supply-chain management as marketers are able to trace the movement of product in the market. Establishment of online stores has eased distribution and sales problems. Consumers benefit through lower prices as distributors are eliminated where manufacturers act as retailers through their online stores. This, manufacturers have also shortened the time taken to clear inventories as the delay time caused by distributors is eliminated. Furthermore, inefficiencies of distributors are eliminated too. Some marketers have taken the idea of consumer interaction to another level as indicated by Patagonia. The makers of the Chacabuco Pack have visualised their supply chain for their customers on their website. This level of openness is indicative of the open policy approach adapted by several marketers. This level of openness is most applicable in green companies which are keen on publicising their carbon footprint as a marketing tool. For instance, Herman Miller takes pride in developing the Mirra chair which is 96% recyclable. Patagonia on the other hand directly that their product is not green and goes ahead to indicate why and also their future plans. This indicates the new social stance marketers have taken facilitated by internet and technology. Idea competitions Social media marketing uses crowd sourcing rules. Potential customers rely on product reviews from other customers to make purchasing decision. Marketers on the other hand try to digest and implement the reviews presented by users. Customers prefer reviews as they are more truthful while marketers’ websites are said to present just pure marketing jargon. A study has revealed that 92% U.S. internet users read product reviews with 46% being positively influenced, 43% being negatively influenced, and only 3% not being influenced at all. To enhance the contribution of customer information and ideas in product development further, marketers have actively engaged in other ways to actively involve customers. Idea competitions have been launched on various social media platforms by different marketers which in one way or another it’s a pre-emptive idea to allow consumers to design their ideal products. Participants in such competitions are rewarded and motivated by great rewards and benefits. This differs from reviews and blogs where participants are not motivated by rewards to give positive reviews. Engaging customers on a social platform as opposed to a marketing platform is more effective. Social media platforms thus are the best challenges that marketers can engage customers and employees in idea competitions. Companies such as Coca Cola and Google have launched numerous ideas competitions. Google has held many android mobile phone applications development competitions in many countries. These competitions have given rise to very many new products and given the firm a good idea of what customers expect from their mobile phones. Coca-Cola launched its idea competition on its website and on its Facebook page. Other organisations prefer idea competitions limited to their employees only. This is most common for organisational process-based ideas of which outsiders have no idea about. However, idea competitions inclusive of customers provide a wider range of ideas and have breath and are not subject to organisational experience alone. Research into Social Media is really all about dollars It is incorrect and misleading to say that research into Social Media is really all about dollars. Research into social media is very important to marketers, organisational policy developers, governments, scholars and very many other stakeholders. Study on social media has given the world a better understanding of the use and importance of social media sites which, not so long ago parents and teachers were worried they would affect learning while managers were worried that they would make employees waste organisations valuable time. Today, a number of managers use Twitter to engage their employees and clients. In fact, the boundless reach of social media highlights the potential of a fully globalised world. Since the invention of internet, online marketing has grown by leaps and bounds. This has been further enhanced by the development of social media and social media marketing. Studies have shown the extent to which the internet and social media have revolutionalised how people interact and the same impact is expected in marketing. Marketers are keen on understanding how people spend their time in social media. For this reason, that is why marketers have increased their expenditure in online marketing to capture the large potential. In Australia alone, there are over 2 million social media users which give marketers a new platform to market, interact and engage these people. Such ease and audience is not easily provided by other media platforms. Social media also plays a vital role in communication. Australians have been shown to use Twitter to give fellow twitter users updates on happenings in times of disaster or provide political updates. Twitter even presents a different alternative to opinion polls by tracking use of specific hash tags and their popularity in politics. Prof Bruns says. “You can use the map to study developments in Australian politics, natural disasters or trends in public thought and opinion.” Therefore, research into social media helps shape policy in different fields and should not viewed that as all about dollars. Is texting is better than email? The growth in the use of mobile phones has been phenomenal in the past decade. This usage and penetration continues to grow as marketers are set to capitalize on this growth. Texting, as opposed to calling has been predicted to draw more attention to marketers. Short Message Services and Multimedia Message Services, or generally text messages are largely used for interpersonal communication. They are preferred to emails because they are short, on point and more readily accessible on mobile phones as opposed to emails that require internet connection. However, compared to emails, text messages do not carry the sometimes much needed detail because they are used limited words. For instance texts cannot carry printable coupons Privacy matters apply both to emails and texting though at different degrees. People are often offended by spontaneous texts and emails sent by marketers. Unsolicited texts and emails are sometimes perceived offensive and a breach to personal space. Ordinarily, perceive a mobile phone number more private than their email address. This means that unsolicited texts are more repulsive than emails. Furthermore, people are more willing to give away their email addresses as opposed to their personal mobile phone numbers to marketers. In this case, marketers keen on texting will find it hard to develop a list of clients whom to engage through texting or even inform them bout various products and offers. It is easier to assess the effectiveness of email marketing as opposed to texting. By including weblinks in emails, marketers can actually track the click-through rate, purchase rate-number and open-rate number, something which is impossible in texting. Calculation of such rates enables marketers to evaluate the effectiveness of email marketing activities. Furthermore, email recipients can reply to such mails through a single click while in the case of texting, recipients have to compose text which is tedious and is in some cases charged by the mobile service provider. Therefore, the benefits of emails outweigh texts in terms of ease of use, generating lists and responses by far. It is all about value propositions Internet marketing is all about value proposition to internet users for all internet marketers. Business models, whether online or offline are basically tied to meeting consumer needs and marketing them by making value propositions. Although business models have been also said to address sources and methods of revenue generation, costs of revenue generation, and planned growth trajectory, the core value proposition takes center stage in internet and electronic marketing. The ability to influence product movement to customers is the major activity of all businesses, whether B2B or B2C. This translates to revenue creation. Other issues in a business model such as cost structures, key resources, and customer relationship are all enablers of value proposition which cannot stand on their own. For instance, the offering, or the products or services that the business is offering, are not important to financiers if they cannot generate return on investments. The marketing part of a business model, in terms of how the market will benefit from the product or service and differentiation options is still attached to how the proposition value and return on investments. Customer engagement through online marketing is not about the customer per se, but the marketer. The marketer has his interest at heart in form of value proposition by engaging customers in various ways in order to generate revenue. This explains why some organizations with relatively good business models fail if they do not generate enough revenue to remain afloat. In fact, as indicated in the slide, lack of “a profitable current business model” will not help any organization planning to go online in marketing. This directly implies that online marketing and virtual organizations with their business models are driven by profits alone. Other activities such as engaging customers, idea competitions, and coupons are only targeted at increasing the profitability of such firms. Therefore, online marketing is all about value proposition and making money. Read More