E-commerce and direct marketing
Overview
There would be few people today whose lives have not been influenced in some form by the Internet and many of us have at some point, if not on a daily base, made use of the Web, which, as your text puts it, is the graphical face of the Internet or the user friendly interface.
The growing virtual world of e-commerce is allowing businesses to leap across geographical space to provide services to rural and regional communities in many countries. E-commerce is enabling businesses to streamline their operations and allowing even the smallest of businesses to compete in the international marketplace. One way this is being done is by one-to-one marketing which has taken on a new electronic form of direct marketing where businesses are able to personalise communications with customers. These are some of the major issues we will discuss.
Topics
The following is the outline of the topics covered in this chapter.
- 10.1 Introduction
- 10.2 Direct marketing
- 10.3 Electronic commerce
- 10.4 Online marketing
- 10.5 Using customer databases
- 10.6 Privacy issues
- 10.7 Summary
Learning outcomes
The learning objectives for this chapter have been carefully constructed to reflect the most significant concepts and ideas we are going to cover, and to provide a focus for your work during the chapter. After completing this chapter you should be able to:
- explain how the Internet affects the traditional marketing mix
- discuss the effects of the Internet on marketing strategy
- describe the privacy and security issues surrounding e-commerce
- understand the differences and similarities between direct marketing and online marketing
- discuss various techniques of direct marketing.
