Business To Business Internet Marketing
by Thomas Morva
Marketing depends heavily on an effective communication flow between the company and the consumer. And there is nothing better than Internet in this age of technology. Manufacturing a product and making it available on the market is only a part of the company job. It is equally important, or perhaps more important, to make it known to the consumer that the product is available in the market. The Internet can play a pivotal role in this regard.
In a competitive market, where several firms are striving to win over consumers, it is not enough if the availability of a product only is made known to consumers. It is also essential to propagate the distinctive features of the product on the Internet. The process does not end here, either. The firm should also get feedback on how the consumers accept its products and interpret its messages. This multidimensional function can be carried out only through an effective, continuous and two-way flow of information between the firm and the consumer.
According to the traditional view held by marketing people, the promotion mix consisting of personal selling, advertising, sales promotion and publicity is the only instrument available for communicating with the consumer. But with technology advances, one can add the Internet to this category as well. The firm attempts to communicate with the consumer through quality products, colorful packages, written messages, pictures and symbols. When these various stimuli are received and interpreted by the consumer, marketing communication from the Internet takes place. The communication also involves feedback from the consumer to the company, on how the total product offering of the company is received by the market.
So, marketing communications through the Internet can be defined as the phenomenon of presenting a set of messages to a target market through multiple cues, with the intention of creating a favorable response from the market towards the company's total product offering. Simultaneously, it provides for market feedback for improving and modifying the company's total product offering.
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