The imagine nation website

• Main Author: Miranda, Maria Katrina C.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2005
• Subjects: Commercial photography; Photography > Marketing; Internet marketing; Web sites > Marketing; Electronic commerce > Management; Communication
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2095
• Institution: De La Salle University

It may seem surprising but many companies, big and small, have yet to develop a rational Internet marketing strategy. Considering the Internet has now been used effectively by marketers since 1994, any organization without a strategy to utilize the Internet for marketing is probably making a big mistake. Possibly the most important reason why companies need to have an active Internet marketing strategy is because of the transformation that has occured in how customers seek information. While customers still visit stores, talk to sales representatives, look through magazines, and talk to friends to gather product information, an ever-increasing number of customers turn to the Internet as their primary knowledge source. The Internet is not only becoming the resource of choice for finding information, in the next few years it is also likely to be the expected location where customers can learn about products and make purchases. This is especially the case for customers below the age of 25. In many countries, nearly all children and young adults have been raised knowing how to use the Internet. As a data collection tool the Internet is unmatched when it comes to providing information on customer activity. Each time a visitor accesses a website they leave an information trail that includes how they got to the site, how they navigated through the site, what they clicked on, what was purchased, and loads of other information. Whether customers like it or not, the Internet is proving to be the ultimate venue for inducing impulse purchases. Much of this can be attributed to marketers taking advantage of improvements in technologies that: 1) allow a website to offer product suggestions based on customer's online buying behavior, and 2) streamline the online purchasing process. But online impulse purchasing also takes advantage of the purchase now, pay later attitude common in an overspending credit card society. No other form of communication comes close to turning exposure to promotion into immediate customer action as the Internet, which allows customers to make purchases immediately after experiencing a promotion. For distributors and retailers the Internet makes it easy to be a comprehensive supplier. Unlike brick-and mortar suppliers who are often judged by the inventory that is actually on hand or services provided at a store, e-commerce sites can give the illusion of having depth and breadth of inventory and service offerings. Internet technologies are replacing more expensive methods for delivering products and services, and for handling customer information needs. Cost savings can certainly be seen with products and services deliverable in digital form (e.g., music, publications, graphics design, etc.) The Internet is a communication and distribution channel that offers global accessibility to a company's product and service offerings. Through a website a local marketer can quickly become a global marketer and, by doing so, expand their potential target market to many times it current size.