In
interactive marketing, customers are not just
passive participants who receive media advertising
prior to purchase, but are actively engaged
in a network-enabled proactive and interactive
process. Interactive marketing encourages customers
to become involved in product development,
delivery, and service issues. This is enabled
by various Internet technologies, including
chat and discussion groups, web forms and questionnaires,
and e-mail correspondence. Finally, the expected
outcomes of interactive marketing are a rich
mixture of vital marketing data, new product
ideas, volume sales, and strong customer relationships.
Targeted Marketing
Targeted marketing has become an important tool in developing advertising and
promotion strategies for a company's electronic commerce websites. Targeted marketing
is an advertising and promotion management concept that includes five targeting
components.
Community. Companies
can customise their web advertising messages
and promotion methods to appeal to people in
specific communities. These can be communities
of interest, such as virtual communities of
online sporting enthusiasts, or arts and crafts
hobbyists, or geographic communities formed
by the web sites of a city or local newspaper.
Content. Advertising
such as electronic billboards or banners can
be placed on various website pages, in addition
to a company's home page. These messages reach
the targeted audiences. An ad for a movie on
the opening page of an internet search engine
is a typical example.
Context. Advertising
appears only in the web pages that are relevant
to the content of a product or service. So
advertising is targeted only at people who
are already looking for information about a
subject matter (vacation travel, for example)
that is related to a company's products (car
rental service, for example).
Demographic/Psychographic. Marketing
efforts can be aimed at only specific types
or classes of people: unmarried, twenty-something,
middle income, male college graduates, for
example.
Online
Behaviour. Advertising and promotion
efforts can be tailored to each visit by
an individual. This enables a company to
track a person's online behaviour at a website
so marketing efforts can be instantly developed
and targeted to that individual at each visit
to their website.
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