Internet Marketing Analysis and Case Studies

This assignment delves into the realm of internet marketing, examining key principles and practices. It requires students to critically analyze academic literature and real-world case studies related to e-commerce quality, trust, innovation, and web service performance in online businesses. The analysis should demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the theoretical foundations and practical applications of internet marketing.

UNIT 30
INTERNET
MARKETING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Elements of Internet marketing.............................................................................................1
1.2 Elements of marketing mix...................................................................................................2
1.3 Internet marketing tools........................................................................................................3
1.4 Interactive order processing..................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Mechanism of search engine marketing................................................................................5
2.2 Opt in email marketing letter................................................................................................6
2.3 Best practices in online public relations................................................................................6
2.4 Use of new digital media communities.................................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Market research.....................................................................................................................7
3.2 Online survey........................................................................................................................8
3.3 Use of electronic customer relationship marketing...............................................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
4.1 Internet marketing plan.......................................................................................................10
4.2 Presentation on pay per click..............................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
In today’s era, with change in-time, the technology is continuously getting updated. As a
result, advertising and promotional techniques are improved. Earlier, the process of advertising
products was done by using TV, radios and newspapers. But these days, internet has become the
most useful tool of advertising. Online marketing is a process through which products are sold to
its end users with the help of online promotional techniques. With the use of different social
networking sites like Facebook, g-mail, Twitter and blogs, products are advertised over these
sites. On the basis of given case study, Amazon has taken into consideration. It is one of the
largest online retailer that delivers variety of products. The report depicts different elements of
internet advertising and marketing mix. It emphasizes on the mechanism of search engine
optimization. At last, internet marketing plan is explained in this report to gain in-depth
knowledge of the same.
TASK 1
1.1 Elements of Internet marketing
Internet marketing can be linked with digital marketing, e-commerce, e-marketing etc.
Digital marketing is defined as Brands or products which are promoted via electronic media
using digital technologies. Similarly, the business transactions that takes place over electronic
networking such as social networks, internet is known as e-commerce (Baghdadi, 2013).Further,
advertising and marketing efforts that takes place through web and mails is commonly known as
e- marketing. In addition to it, an organisation needs to function under certain environment
which can be classified as macro and micro:
Internet micro environment:- Customers: Needs and preferences of the customers is a must for the company, for the
long run retention of customers. For this, Amazon offers variety of products under
different category along with quality services to develop healthy relations with them. Competitors: to compete with Walmart, Amazon needs to give special offers to
customers in terms of free shipping, discounts on products, etc.
 Intermediaries: these are the agents that link a network between the business suppliers
and customers, thus Amazon needs to maintain a constant check on internet and its
activities.
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Internet macro environment:- Economic factor: Amazon should target on developed economy to conduct more
transactions. As the economy of the country depends upon the total e-commerce activities
(Baloglu and Pekcan, 2006). Technological factors: with the changing technologies the company should move from
old to new methods of online business. Such as connectivity through use of mobile
phones.
 Legal factor: Company should be aware of the laws relating to ethical use of internet, as
consumers are much concerned about their privacy on online sites.
Apart from this, varied benefits of internet marketing within the context of Amazon are
discussed underneath-
 Easy to reach the perspective customers on the basis of their last transaction and send
them promotional products.
 Allows the customer to personalise the products according to their taste which
eventually attracts more customers.
 The internet also helps the companies to keep a track on their competitors price
strategies and further changes can be made in their products.
 With the increase bargaining power it becomes easy to attract more customers (Barnes,
2011).
1.2 Elements of marketing mix
Marketing mix can be termed as putting the right product at the right time, and the right place
and creating demand for the same. There are 7 basic elements of a marketing mix. These
constitute of 7p's which are as follows:- Products: Amazon deals in various kinds of products such as clothes, jewellery, books,
phones, game studios, kindle etc. these products are made available to customers through
online networking. The company first started its business by selling books then it
gradually expanded and now its selling every single product. With the success of kindle ,
Amazon introduced its own Tablet Pc known as Kindly (Coltman and et.al.2009).
 Place: Amazon is an online store and its customer services are based in almost every
country. Its headquarters are in USA, Washington. Its software development centres are
there in Seattle. It has centres across the globe.
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 Price: the company sells its products at competitive prices. It also offers various
discounts and special schemes to its customers, which in turn helps it to stay and survive
in the market. It serves a tough competition to its competitors such as Ebay, flip kart etc. Promotion: Amazon advertisement can be seen anywhere and everywhere. It also uses
online advertisement so that whenever the search is conducted, it will appear on that sites.
Television advertisement is the most common way to promote its product. Various offers
also present to customers in terms of buy one get one free. People: well trained and right persons are appointed to provide customer care services. If
the consumers do not find any product as per the specification, the customers can even
contact to the employees and ask for exchange and repayment of product. Process: It has a well tailored process of buying and selling of goods. People can easily
purchase and payment can also be made through bank transfers or cash payment as per
the customers' satisfaction. It also provides services like return of products (Fawzy and
Dworski, 2010).
 Physical evidence: Amazon mostly deals in products having their brand name some of
those are Nike, Addidas Fast track etc., these products are well known by everyone and
creates a physical evidence in the market.
1.3 Internet marketing tools
For carrying out any online business one shall need the use of electronic tools for carrying out its
operations. Campaigning can be done through social media marketing, e-mails, Blog-post etc. Social Media Marketing: Social media marketing is so viral these days. Amazon also
uses product promotion through social media like Facebook, Twitter in the form of posts,
messages etc. People are so active on these sites that its easy to promote things here.
Even if one does not want to buy anything, once they visit these sites they eventually
make purchases this makes easier to sell things (Elliott and Boshoff, 2007). E-mail: The company can make advertisement and promotional activities through
Emails. It sends various offers through mails which brings in more customers. The
customers are attracted by the discounted and innovative products that come time to time.
Even when there are new arrivals customers are informed through mails. Blog post: It is usually published on world wide web consisting of discussions or
information appearing in a chronological manner. The most recent appears first.
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Similarly, Amazon also creates such blogs on every site through which it attracts more
visitors and creates more sales. Search engine Optimization (SEO): While deciding the name, the founder suggested it
should it start with the letter 'a'. Amazon is eventually on top. Whenever a customer
creates search for a product the first thing that appears is Amazon. People don't have
habit of scrolling down so it becomes easier to generate traffics with the names starting
with initial alphabets (Gerjets, 2012).
 Mobile messaging: The company also provides messaging services so that the customer
can know about their purchased product or to track the delivery of the product. Various
details regarding the last purchase and new arrival of products can also be known via
messages.
1.4 Interactive order processing
Whenever a customer places any order it goes through various steps and then the final order is
processed. These include:- Order receipt: The process starts when the customer places an order for the product and
then the company checks it. Further it processes and checks whether the customer is
credit worthy which means is he able to pay for the product? If yes, then the availability
of the particular product is checked in the warehouse. Order Evaluation: After the availability of the product in the warehouse, order
confirmation message is being sent to the customer. And all the details regarding the
shipment documents and delivery notice is being sent to the customer. The order is then
packed and dispatched for the shipment. Final delivery notice and the date of delivery is
sent to the customer. An invoice of the product is generated and sent with the product to
the customers (Hayter, 2012).
 Inventory management: Finally when the goods are shipped and delivered to the
customer with the copy of invoice. If the customer is not happy with the product he can
even ask for exchange or repayment of goods.
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TASK 2
2.1 Mechanism of search engine marketing
Search engine optimization is the methodology used to improve the number of visitors on
a website by assuring high-ranking placements. Generally, companies use keywords so that when
customers enter any details, related results will be shown. Mostly, visited links by visitors help a
company to know the rankings. However, search engine marketing is a kind of tool which
includes advertisement of websites by increasing the visibility in search engine results pages.
Marketing department of Amazon uses this methodology through which they can know the
ranking of their sites and links. Major advantage of using SEO technique by Amazon is that
using this technique will result into exploring search by users who finds solutions to the
immediate problems. As a result, company can grow and make a positive image in the eyes of
target market through online marketing (Hollensen, 2015).
Use of SEO technique may affect the organization in terms of return on investment. It
may take time to generate sufficient results from this tool. However, the company can better use
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Illustration 1: Interactive Order Processing

keywords in URL which will enhance the use of SEO. It will result in attracting large number of
visitors because keywords in URL are useful at the time of search. If proper keywords are used
in URL then from results, the best one is selected by customers. Elements of search engine
marketing are SEO, paid advertising and web analysis. However, the price are charged on the
basis of pay per click. Pay per click is a form of paid advertising where click on an ad by a
visitor is charged by a company (Katerina and et.al., 2009).
2.2 Opt in email marketing letter
Company usually sends bulk emails to target customers in order to deliver relevant
information that aids in gaining attention from them. This email is termed as opt-in email. With
the help of it, cited company is able to deliver information related to upcoming and prevailing
offers so that its existing and potential customers can take benefits from it. Following is an opt-in
email for the customers of Amazon.
Dear Customers,
There is good news for the customers that our company is offering discount of 20% on footwear
for all categories. This offer is for limited period of 5 days. It is time to grab the opportunity to
get discounted products. Please visit our site for more information about more discounts offered
by company. To stop getting notification from Amazon, click Unsubscribe.
Thank You
Marketing manager
2.3 Best practices in online public relations
Online public relation is a process in which the spread information between a customer
and organization is managed. It can be said as a way through which company can maintain its
relations with public. There are different modes that can be used by the management of Amazon
to make better public relations. Organization has its own website where the required information
about products is given. There is another option of taking feedbacks which help in knowing the
pros and cons about company’s services. There are some more modes like blogs, wiki, twitter
and Google. With the help of online PR, promotion of products and services can be done (Kotler
and Sheth, 2011).
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Advantages of online public relation are that the management of Amazon can contact
large number of customers within small span of time. It helps the organization to save time and
cost. It also aids company to take feedbacks through which they will be able to know the actual
requirements of customers. On the other hand, disadvantage of using this process is that it may
remain difficult to predict the customer response. It can take time of 3 days or a week till that the
company cannot find out whether the strategy is useful or not. However, organization can use
self-serving online banners which help in maintaining healthy relations. However, the process is
less expensive which results in saving cost and increasing productivity. Even, company uses
interactive display advertising in which the videos and smartphones are used to attract customers.
Using mobile commerce can be helpful for the firm to make better relations with public. Using
messages and emails over phone would help the firm to make its relations strong with public (Ku
and Edward, 2012).
2.4 Use of new digital media communities
For increasing the profitability and productivity of organization, use of internet
communities in business practices is necessary. It is used to interact with the customers so that
company can know the viewpoints of customers. Marketing management of Amazon uses these
strategies. With the use of this tool, organization is able to be communicative with the customers.
The interaction can be made by using instant messaging which can be done over chat rooms and
discussion groups. Over chat rooms, customers mention their queries and problems on which the
department replies for effective solutions. Even, company has its own website on which they
have given an option for feedbacks and queries. Customers can use it and know more details
about the concerned deals and discounts (Onetti and et.al., 2012).
Earlier, social networking sites were used to chat and make interactions with each other.
But now, it plays a vital role in the promotion of products and services. People used to spend
majority of time over these sites. Generally, on the web page the ads are pop up and visible on
which users click. With the use of Facebook, twitter, blogs and yahoo, organization can better
interact with public. As a result, it aids in maintaining good relations with public by which
goodwill of company increase in the market. The marketing management of Amazon also uses
Blogs where required information is given by the firm. If any customer has any doubt with the
related information then there is an option of comments through which customers can ask for
solutions.
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TASK 3
3.1 Market research
Market research is process of gathering information about the taste and preferences of the
customers. The research helps in formulating the plans and strategies to improve current position
of the company. Research can be conducted by using two ways i.e. primary research and
secondary research. Whereas, primary research is a process of collecting information for the first
time in which fresh data is gathered. On other side, secondary research is conducted by using
publish surveys, reports and online communities, blogs and government information.
Information is already collected by the sources are given in the reports and surveys. On the basis
of the secondary data it is analysed that the online sales reach at 41.2% share of e-commerce
sales. The net sales of the company is 107 billion dollars. It shows that the organization is able to
provide the required products according to the needs and demands of customers. It shows that the
company has maintained good relations with customers. It is seen that over its website the
management has properly responded to its customer (Buchner, Anand and Hughes, 2011). As a
result, it has raised the trust factor of the consumers towards the company. It shows that the
consumers are loyal towards the products of the company. Market research aids the organization
to provide the products same with the customer requirements. The research department of
Amazon aims at collecting the information about its competitors and customers. On the basis that
the evaluation of gathered information is done. With the help of analysis the company is able to
make effective plans and policies. As result, the firm is earning consistent revenues on yearly
basis. The marketing manager of Amazon has decided to conduct an online survey to know the
satisfaction level of customers. For the survey secondary data plays a crucial role.
3.2 Online survey
An organization conducts online survey to get information about the taste and demands
of customers. It helps a company to gather large amount of information at small span of time.
With the help of collected information the management can make analysis on that which helps
the company to set polices and innovation. The marketing department of Amazon has conducted
online survey to know the needs and demands of customers. The survey is conducted by taking
the sample of 100 people. Random sampling technique is used in the survey. The source of
information is primary data is used (Epstein and Yuthas, 2007).In which an online questionnaire
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is prepared and to be uploaded on surveymonkey.com . It contains questions related with the
satisfaction level of consumers. The following questions are given below.
ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE
NAME-
SEX-
AGE-
1. Do you feel satisfied with the products and services of the company?
YES
NO
2. How often do you use the products of our company?
DAILY
OFTEN
RARELY
3. Are you happy with the quality of the products?
YES
NO
4. Are you happy with the response attained from the employees of Amazon??
YES
NO
5. Do we need any changes required in our quality of products? If any please mention in
the box.
QUERY-
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With the help of above survey, key idea is attained from customers with regards to their
satisfaction level.
It has been evident from above figures that customers are highly satisfied with the
products and service of Amazon. This is the scenario because company is able to offer products
that directly meet with the needs of customers. Also, appropriate service aids in boosting the
shopping experience of customers which makes them satisfied. However, 6% of respondents are
not satisfied with the services and products. This signifies that Amazon is able to meet with the
needs of customers in appropriate manner.
Above figure signifies that 51 out of 100 respondents use the products of the company on
“daily” basis, 27 uses “often” and 22 “rarely”. This clarifies that company possess high loyalty
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among existing customers. From this, overall sales volume of Amazon gets increase and it enjoys
the benefits of repeat purchase.
When asked respondents are they happy with the products, 91% stated “yes” whereas
only 9% stated as “no”. From this, it can be witnessed that company offers good quality products
to customers that makes them happy to use it. With this, company witness high rise in sales
volume and this eventually results into boosting of market share of the company.
It is even found that employees of Amazon offers sound responses to customers through which
customer feel satisfied. However, 24% of respondent stated that employees do have good
responses. This is the situation due to poor handling of grievances from employees. Hence,
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company must offer proper training and development session to employees so that they can
handle even the worse situation as well.
3.3 Use of electronic customer relationship marketing
Relationship marketing is a form of marketing in which customer loyalty and long term
engagement of customers is focused by the management. It does not include short term goals like
individual sales but the organization aims at focusing on large number of customers. There are
some benefits of relationship marketing strategy are given below.
Customer feedbacks: Whenever, a company offers interaction with the customers and
their concern the aim of the company is to take feedbacks. The management pays careful
attention on the positive and negative aspects of the feedback. As a result, it remains helpful in
making strategies and plans for future.
Innovations: The management of Amazon invites the ideas of customers so that they can
implement to in real aspects. The given ideas are being discussed by the management over that
final decisions are taken (Evans, 2012)
Profitability: Here, the profitability is defined in terms of customers. Relevant
communication will make consumer to use product and services. However, the benefits of
products is better known by the customers. As a result, it will ultimately benefit the customers.
However, the electronic customer marketing is a process of interacting with the
customers using information technology. This process includes communicating online with the
customers by taking feedbacks and queries. The process is very useful for the marketing manager
of Amazon. There are some basis on which the use of ECRM can be analysed. The uses are
given below.
Improve relations with customers: Truth is the most important factor at the time of
dealing with customers because it is not easily obtained. Earlier, it was used to know the taste of
customers but now it is used to gear their trust and loyalty. The use of ECRM will help Amazon
to improve relations with the existing customers as well as it will help in attracting new
customers.
Quality services: With the change in time customers have become smarter they are no
more price oriented but quality oriented as well. The consumer attracts to those producers who
renders quality services and products (Furrer and Sudharshan, 2011)
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Transaction and processing speed: ECRM is useful in dealing with the queries and
problems of the customers. With the help of this immediate solutions can be find out by the
company.
TASK 4
4.1 Internet marketing plan
The internet marketing plan of Amazon is presented below.
Situation analysis: Amazon is one of the leading company in online business. The
company has good reputation but still it wants to explore itself and increase the customer base.
The organization aims at delivering products to maximum number of customers in UK and other
parts (Fawzy and Dworski, 2010).
Key performance indicators: On the basis of above situation the key indicators of
Amazon are sales, number of visitors and number of customers. The performance of can be
measured on the basis of increase in sales and at what number the visitors have visited on
website. Increase in sale will help in analyse the number of customers.
SWOT analysis: On the basis of SWOT analysis the strength of Amazon is its quality
product and customer relation. Weakness is the organization needs to communicate with more
customers. Opportunity is that the proper use of resources will help in expanding the business.
Threat is that the competitors of the company.
Choosing a channel: The use of media channels to communicate with customers will be
taken are social media. So that it will help the company to attract and communicate with large
number of customer.
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4.2 Presentation on pay per click
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CONCLUSION
Internet marketing is the best promotional tool that can be used by a firm. It helps in
attracting new customers and maintain good relations with existing ones. The report has depicted
the advantages and disadvantages of using internet marketing. It also defined the elements of
marketing mix and use of search engine optimization. However, SEO can be very helpful for the
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growth of online businesses. On other side, internet market plan will help the management of
Amazon to analyse the satisfaction level of customers.
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REFERENCES
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