Chapter 1
Internet Marketing As Part of the Marketing Communications Mix
Learning Objectives:
By the time students complete this chapter they should be able to:
Briefly describe how the Internet originated and what makes it unique as a
communications and transactions medium.
Describe the implications of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.
Discuss the business benefits of using Web 2.0.
Understand the generic marketing objectives that form the basis for Internet marketing
strategies.
Discuss the Internet marketing channels that can be used for Internet communications
and commerce.
Describe the basic technical infrastructure of the Internet including computing in the
cloud.
Identify some of the sites where up-to-date Internet statistics can be found.
Explain the advantages of using the Internet for consumers and for businesses of all
kinds.
Identify the strategic and economic drivers of the Internet.
Suggest some potential best practices in acquiring, communicating with, and retaining
customers on the Internet.
Chapter Perspective
Students need to understand the evolution of the Internet, which should better prepare
them for the fact that the Internet continues to change and will do so for the foreseeable
future. Beyond that brief history the first chapter sets the stage for what is going to be
covered in the remainder of the text. It does so from the perspective that Internet
marketing is no longer just a mainstream communications and transactions medium, it is
now an accepted part of the integrated marketing communications mix. In fact,
multichannel marketing is so prevalent that there are few single channel marketers.
Internet marketing is now a significant and growing part of the marketing activities and
budgets of traditional B2C, B2B, nonprofit and governmental marketers. Examples from
each marketspace are used throughout the text. Examples from around the globe are
,woven seamlessly into the text to reinforce the perspective of the Internet as a truly global
medium.
Students have a tendency to believe they know about the Internet—after all, they use it
every day. Most of them actually know very little about how Internet business works,
especially about marketing on the web. This is particularly true of students with a technical
background who correctly believe this class may provide an added dimension to their
training. They are able to add technical detail to many discussions, but it may be hard to get
them to take a customer-oriented perspective.
Students should also recognize Internet marketing as a significant career opportunity. The
number of positions continues to grow. There are numerous jobs at the entry level and
marketers with five years or more of experience are scarce and highly sought after. The
introduction has a description of the Internet Career Builder Exercise that begins
generically in Chapter 1 and really gets started in Chapter 4.
The Evolution of the Internet
The degree of emphasis placed on the history of the Internet will depend on the instructor’s
interests and approach. At a minimum, it is important for students to understand that the
Internet is not a recent phenomenon, and that it went through a number of discernable
stages over the last fifty-plus years. The infographic on which Figure 1.1 is based is
interesting and informative: http://socialmediagraphics.posterous.com/the-history-of-the-
internet.
If you want more information, the Internet Timeline is hugely informative
http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/#1950s, with some good graphs at the
end, and can be used in the classroom. Another interesting site is Live Internet
http://www.livinginternet.com, which is an incredibly rich resource for Internet history.
Throughout the text, if you want to provide some historical context, you might find the
Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine interesting: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php. It
is particularly useful if you want to show the evolution of some of the major websites.
,The main thing students need to realize is that the Internet was not originally a commercial
medium. That helps to explain some of the inherent tensions that still exist in the medium.
Current events can often help to illustrate the point. As this is written SOPA has gone away
for the moment, but you can expect continuing issues that concern the governance of the
Internet itself and the impact it has on particular industries and consumer segments.
It is also good to focus students on the section about the Internet bubble. Visuals like the
eToys website http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http://etoys.com or the Pets.com sock
puppet are readily available if you want to illustrate the point. Here the key point is
economic sustainability, which neither of these sites had in the early days of the Internet.
Students should think about the fact that there are successful toy sites now (they
understand the virtues of cost control and efficient fulfillment of customer orders) and pet
product, which tend to be focused on the higher-margin supplies and medicines. This kind
of thinking provides a good foundation for the Chapter 3 discussion of business models.
The Sabre System
The Sabre example follows the history section for a particular reason. Just as the Internet
predates its current size and scope, Sabre started at almost the dawn of computing, long
before the Internet became a commercial venue. They have taken advantage of many new
developments in technology, including the Internet, and therefore provide a good role
model for other enterprises as they try to keep up with changing markets and technology.
The Travelocity gnome is a delightful visual illustration of their multiple brands example.
, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0
Web 2.0 and 3.0 are not absolutes but they are the best current descriptors of where the
web seems to be going at this moment. Tim O’Reilly is considered the guru of Web 2.0. His
descriptive characteristics are:
• Services, not packaged software (SaaS) with scalability essential
• Unique data collected on the web with behavioral data key to strategy
• Users as co-developers
• Harness collective intelligence
• Leverage the “Long Tail”
Chris Anderson of Wired magazine coined the term in 2004. His website
gives an explanation and has a good graphic:
http://www.longtail.com/about.html.
• Software increasingly device agnostic with mobile apps being a prime example
• “Lightweight” interfaces, development and business models. This is a tech concept
probably best left at “user friendly.”
The O’Reilly map in Interactive Exercise 1.1 is interesting, and shows the power of
interactivity, but the point is a bit philosophical. The McKinsey interactive presentation of
their research on the benefits of what they now call “social technology” makes the
interactive point as well as having useful content. It has the benefit of being easier to
present: https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/wrapper.aspx?
ar=2431&story=true&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.mckinseyquarterly.com
%2fBusiness_and_Web_20_An_interactive_feature_2431%3fpagenum
%3d1%23interactive&pgn=buwe09_exhibit.
There is no firm answer to what Web 3.0 is going to look like, although the word “semantic”
appears in most discussions. The summary of CNN is as straightforward as it gets:
• Real time
Internet Marketing As Part of the Marketing Communications Mix
Learning Objectives:
By the time students complete this chapter they should be able to:
Briefly describe how the Internet originated and what makes it unique as a
communications and transactions medium.
Describe the implications of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.
Discuss the business benefits of using Web 2.0.
Understand the generic marketing objectives that form the basis for Internet marketing
strategies.
Discuss the Internet marketing channels that can be used for Internet communications
and commerce.
Describe the basic technical infrastructure of the Internet including computing in the
cloud.
Identify some of the sites where up-to-date Internet statistics can be found.
Explain the advantages of using the Internet for consumers and for businesses of all
kinds.
Identify the strategic and economic drivers of the Internet.
Suggest some potential best practices in acquiring, communicating with, and retaining
customers on the Internet.
Chapter Perspective
Students need to understand the evolution of the Internet, which should better prepare
them for the fact that the Internet continues to change and will do so for the foreseeable
future. Beyond that brief history the first chapter sets the stage for what is going to be
covered in the remainder of the text. It does so from the perspective that Internet
marketing is no longer just a mainstream communications and transactions medium, it is
now an accepted part of the integrated marketing communications mix. In fact,
multichannel marketing is so prevalent that there are few single channel marketers.
Internet marketing is now a significant and growing part of the marketing activities and
budgets of traditional B2C, B2B, nonprofit and governmental marketers. Examples from
each marketspace are used throughout the text. Examples from around the globe are
,woven seamlessly into the text to reinforce the perspective of the Internet as a truly global
medium.
Students have a tendency to believe they know about the Internet—after all, they use it
every day. Most of them actually know very little about how Internet business works,
especially about marketing on the web. This is particularly true of students with a technical
background who correctly believe this class may provide an added dimension to their
training. They are able to add technical detail to many discussions, but it may be hard to get
them to take a customer-oriented perspective.
Students should also recognize Internet marketing as a significant career opportunity. The
number of positions continues to grow. There are numerous jobs at the entry level and
marketers with five years or more of experience are scarce and highly sought after. The
introduction has a description of the Internet Career Builder Exercise that begins
generically in Chapter 1 and really gets started in Chapter 4.
The Evolution of the Internet
The degree of emphasis placed on the history of the Internet will depend on the instructor’s
interests and approach. At a minimum, it is important for students to understand that the
Internet is not a recent phenomenon, and that it went through a number of discernable
stages over the last fifty-plus years. The infographic on which Figure 1.1 is based is
interesting and informative: http://socialmediagraphics.posterous.com/the-history-of-the-
internet.
If you want more information, the Internet Timeline is hugely informative
http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/#1950s, with some good graphs at the
end, and can be used in the classroom. Another interesting site is Live Internet
http://www.livinginternet.com, which is an incredibly rich resource for Internet history.
Throughout the text, if you want to provide some historical context, you might find the
Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine interesting: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php. It
is particularly useful if you want to show the evolution of some of the major websites.
,The main thing students need to realize is that the Internet was not originally a commercial
medium. That helps to explain some of the inherent tensions that still exist in the medium.
Current events can often help to illustrate the point. As this is written SOPA has gone away
for the moment, but you can expect continuing issues that concern the governance of the
Internet itself and the impact it has on particular industries and consumer segments.
It is also good to focus students on the section about the Internet bubble. Visuals like the
eToys website http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http://etoys.com or the Pets.com sock
puppet are readily available if you want to illustrate the point. Here the key point is
economic sustainability, which neither of these sites had in the early days of the Internet.
Students should think about the fact that there are successful toy sites now (they
understand the virtues of cost control and efficient fulfillment of customer orders) and pet
product, which tend to be focused on the higher-margin supplies and medicines. This kind
of thinking provides a good foundation for the Chapter 3 discussion of business models.
The Sabre System
The Sabre example follows the history section for a particular reason. Just as the Internet
predates its current size and scope, Sabre started at almost the dawn of computing, long
before the Internet became a commercial venue. They have taken advantage of many new
developments in technology, including the Internet, and therefore provide a good role
model for other enterprises as they try to keep up with changing markets and technology.
The Travelocity gnome is a delightful visual illustration of their multiple brands example.
, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0
Web 2.0 and 3.0 are not absolutes but they are the best current descriptors of where the
web seems to be going at this moment. Tim O’Reilly is considered the guru of Web 2.0. His
descriptive characteristics are:
• Services, not packaged software (SaaS) with scalability essential
• Unique data collected on the web with behavioral data key to strategy
• Users as co-developers
• Harness collective intelligence
• Leverage the “Long Tail”
Chris Anderson of Wired magazine coined the term in 2004. His website
gives an explanation and has a good graphic:
http://www.longtail.com/about.html.
• Software increasingly device agnostic with mobile apps being a prime example
• “Lightweight” interfaces, development and business models. This is a tech concept
probably best left at “user friendly.”
The O’Reilly map in Interactive Exercise 1.1 is interesting, and shows the power of
interactivity, but the point is a bit philosophical. The McKinsey interactive presentation of
their research on the benefits of what they now call “social technology” makes the
interactive point as well as having useful content. It has the benefit of being easier to
present: https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/wrapper.aspx?
ar=2431&story=true&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.mckinseyquarterly.com
%2fBusiness_and_Web_20_An_interactive_feature_2431%3fpagenum
%3d1%23interactive&pgn=buwe09_exhibit.
There is no firm answer to what Web 3.0 is going to look like, although the word “semantic”
appears in most discussions. The summary of CNN is as straightforward as it gets:
• Real time
