9781285425436_Solutions_ch04/Electronic Commerce, 11th Edition 9781285425436 Chapter 4 Solutions

Review Questions 1. Briefly define the term marketing mix and distinguish it from the term marketing strategy. Answer: Most companies use the term marketing mix to describe the combination of elements that they use to achieve their goals for selling and promoting their products and services. When a company decides which elements it will use, it calls that particular marketing mix its marketing strategy. 2. In one or two paragraphs, explain how the Internet helps marketers deal with the issue of “place.” Answer: The issue of place (also called distribution) is the need to have products or services available in many different locations. The problem of getting the right products to the right places at the best time to sell them has plagued companies since commerce began. Although the Internet does not solve all of these logistics and distribution problems, it can certainly help. For example, digital products (such as information, news, software, music, video, and e-books) can be delivered almost instantly through the Internet. Companies that sell products that must be shipped have found that the Internet gives them much better shipment tracking and inventory control tools than they have ever had before. 3. Many organizations find it difficult to incorporate a customer-based marketing strategy into their Web site designs. In about 100 words, explain why this is a challenge and outline things an organization can do to overcome these difficulties. Answer: A good first step in building a customer-based marketing strategy is to identify groups of customers who share common characteristics. Creating a Web site that acknowledges those groups and treats each differently can make the site more accessible and useful to each group. This is often difficult for organizations to accomplish because most managers, quite naturally, think about their Web sites as models of their activities, and they view those activities from their own internal perspective. Instead, Web sites should be constructed to reflect the external perspective of each different user group that might use the site. Electronic Commerce, 11th Edition Solutions 4-2 4. In one or two paragraphs, list and briefly explain three different factors that should be considered in defining the “product” element of a marketing strategy. Answer: Product is the physical item or service that a company is selling. Elements such as quality, design, features, characteristics, and even the packaging make up the product. These intrinsic charact