These major societal forces create complex challenges for marketers, but they have also generated a new set of capabilities to help companies cope and respond.
• Marketers can use the Internet as a powerful information and sales channel. The
Internet augments marketers’ geographical reach to inform customers and promote products
worldwide. A Web site can list products and services, history, business philosophy, job
opportunities, and other information of interest. In 2006, a Montgomery, Alabama, flea
market gained national popularity when owner Sammy Stephens’s rap-style advertisement
spread virally through the Internet. Created for $1,500, the advertisement was viewed more
than 100,000 times on YouTube and landed Stephens on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Stephens now sells T-shirts, ring tones, and other branded merchandise through his Web
site, advises retailers about advertising, and hosts hundreds of visitors from all over the
world at his store each month.
• Marketers can collect fuller and richer information about markets, customers, prospects,
and competitors. Marketers can conduct fresh marketing research by using the Internet to
arrange focus groups, send out questionnaires, and gather primary data in several other ways.
They can assemble information about individual customers’ purchases, preferences, demographics,and profitability. The drugstore chain CVS uses loyalty-card data to better understand what consumers purchase, the frequency of store visits, and other buying preferences. Its ExtraCare program netted an extra 30 million shoppers and $12 billion a year in revenue across 4,000 stores.
• Marketers can tap into social media to amplify their brand message. Marketers can feed information and updates to consumers via blogs and other postings, support online communities,
and create their own stops on the Internet superhighway. Dell Corporation’s
@DellOutlet Twitter account has more than 600,000 followers. Between 2007 and June 2009,
Dell took in more than $2 million in revenue from coupons provided through Twitter, and
another $1 million from people who started at Twitter and went on to buy a new computer
on the company’s Web site.
• Marketers can facilitate and speed external communication among customers. Marketers
can also create or benefit from online and offline “buzz” through brand advocates and user
communities. Word-of-mouth marketing agency BzzAgent has assembled a nationwide
volunteer army of 600,000 consumers who join promotional programs for products and
services they deem worth talking about.29 In 2005, Dunkin’ Donuts hired BzzAgent to help
launch a new espresso beverage, Latte Lite. Three thousand trained volunteers (called
BzzAgents) in 12 test markets experienced the Latte Lite, formed their opinions, engaged in
natural conversations about the product, and reported back to BzzAgent via the company’s
reporting interface. After four weeks, product sales had increased by more than 15 percent
in test markets.
• Marketers can send ads, coupons, samples, and information to customers who have requested
them or given the company permission to send them. Micro-target marketing and
two-way communication are easier thanks to the proliferation of special-interest magazines,
TV channels, and Internet newsgroups. Extranets linking suppliers and distributors let firms
send and receive information, place orders, and make payments more efficiently. The company
can also interact with each customer individually to personalize messages, services, and
the relationship.
• Marketers can reach consumers on the move with mobile marketing. Using GPS technology, marketers can pinpoint consumers’ exact location and send them messages at the mall
with coupons good only that day, a reminder of an item on their wish list, and a relevant
perk (buy this book today and get a free coffee at the bookstore’s coffee shop). Locationbased
advertising is attractive because it reaches consumers closer to the point of sale. Firms
can also advertise on video iPods and reach consumers on their cell phones through mobile
marketing.
• Companies can make and sell individually differentiated goods. Thanks to advances in factory customization, computer technology, and database marketing software, customers can
buy M&M candies, TABASCO jugs, or Maker’s Mark bottles with their names on them;
Wheaties boxes or Jones soda cans with their picture on the front; and Heinz ketchup bottles
with customized messages.32 BMW’s technology allows buyers to design their own car models
from among 350 variations, with 500 options, 90 exterior colors, and 170 trims. The company
claims that 80 percent of the cars bought in Europe and up to 30 percent bought in the United
States are built to order.
• Companies can improve purchasing, recruiting, training, and internal and external
communications. Firms can recruit new employees online, and many have Internet training
products for their employees, dealers, and agents. Retailer Patagonia has joined Walt Disney
General Motors, and McDonald’s in embracing corporate blogging to communicate
with the public and employees. Patagonia’s The Cleanest Line posts environmental
news, reports the results of its sponsored athletes, and posts pictures and
descriptions of employees’ favorite outdoor locations.
• Companies can facilitate and speed up internal communication among
their employees by using the Internet as a private intranet. Employees can
query one another, seek advice, and download or upload needed information
from and to the company’s main computer. Seeking a single online employee
portal that transcended business units, General Motors launched a platform
called mySocrates in 2006 consisting of announcements, news, links, and
historical information. GM credits the portal with $17.4 million in cost
savings to date.34
• Companies can improve their cost efficiency by skillful use of the
Internet. Corporate buyers can achieve substantial savings by using the
Internet to compare sellers’ prices and purchase materials at auction, or by
posting their own terms in reverse auctions. Companies can improve logistics
and operations to reap substantial cost savings while improving accuracy and
service quality.
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