The importance of e-marketing for any business organisation.

The Internet is considered to be a tool that enables organizations to operate more adequately and efficiently. Ching and Ellis (2004), state that the use of the internet for e-commerce has increasingly grown in relation to the increase in commercial web sites. Information can be requested and provided, orders placed and filled, products delivered and services performed. 

Any E-business will increase its opportunities for cost reduction and will enable information to be managed more effectively provided using the correct e-marketing techniques.  The adaptation of E-marketing sets up opportunities that include a lower cost channel to market and a better knowledge of consumer preferences.  E-marketing is used for B2B purposes and for B2C marketing and sales. 

Cost reduction is considered to be the major benefit in E-marketing this is because it uses the internet as a platform that allows firms to adapt to the needs of customers, reduces transaction costs, and allows customers to move from time- and location-based behaviors. (Watson et al., 2002).

In addition to cost reduction E-marketing helps closing the gaps on distance. “The cost of an e-marketing platform is typically lower than other marketing platforms such as face-to-face salespeople or middlemen/distributors.” (Watson et al., 2002).

E-marketing not only helps cost reduction but as McCue, 1999 states it has an impacted on the barriers to export entry and has provided hope to a lot of organizations attempting to enter foreign markets by allowing them to communicate globally as any other physical business.  In addition, e-marketing allows firms to reach customers that may not be accessible due to geographical limitations of existing distribution channels. E-marketing platforms can provide unlimited information to customers without human interface.  

Watson et al., 2002, adds that E-marketing strategies bring out a hold on existing and emerging communication and data networks to break personalized and uninterrupted communication between the firm and its customers and to provide top level value above traditional patterns.   

How E-marketing can it be applied to various industries

Currently almost any company or industry in the world has managed to incorporate strategic E-marketing concepts in their future policies or plans for future development. In all these cases the radical steps have significantly diminished the operational cost, and meanwhile they have triggered a massive shift towards facilitation of the business processes.

For instance, Airline industries have integrated various E-Marketing options on their web sites aiming to take advantage of the reduced indirect operation costs such as Reservation system costs, Sales offices cost, advertising and sales promotion cost, Agent fees and commissions, ticketing fees. Traditionally, the aviation sector pays between 3%-20% commissions on the travel agents who act as intermediaries in the supply chain.

Instead of spending those huge financial resources the companies have decided to orientate and concentrate their attention on attracting the potential customers directly on their web pages avoiding the additional expenses for simple physical distribution and trade. Some airlines jointly set up on-line booking sites to offer Business-Business or Business-Customer, and other travel-related services. Travel websites such as Priceline and Internet booking engines such as Expedia also offer convenient on-line ways to book (Yang 2001).

The importance of E-marketing modules / degree in higher education.

According to the marketers by the end of this decade there will be 24.9 million new online  shoppers accounting for 49 percent  of the adult population. This fact point at the importance of e-marketing modules (degrees) in higher education. By ignoring this fact the marketers could lose sales, lose customers and  miss business opportunities. The benefits of providing E-marketing modules/degrees in higher education are: The E-Marketing graduates will gain new knowledge and skills in not only e-marketing but Marketing as well. The graduate will be more familiar with recent e-marketing issues in this rapidly changing world of e-business

How E-marketing modules should be taught?

E-marketing is a tough subject to teach for many reasons.

First of all an e-marketing module should be complementary to prior marketing knowledge. Indeed Internet marketing has been defined by Chaffey et Al. (2003) as “achieving marketing objectives through applying digital technologies”. For this reason it is extremely important that e-marketing module in higher education is taught to students who already have a prior knowledge of basic marketing principles.

Secondly, the major objective of such course in our opinion is to prepare students for their future career. In this matter an ideal e-marketing module would combine knowledge about the internet, the related technologies and most of all the implications in a global marketing strategy. Michael John Harker and Ross Bennan have very well explained this idea. The ideal e-marketing module would include: 

• academic knowledge – introduction and discussion of key tools, concepts and case studies during regular lectures
• web design training – in computer lab to experiment some software
• Real world experience – small groups of students working for real small or medium clients by creating or improving an existing e-marketing strategy.

To conclude, an e-marketing course should be engaging, relevant and a valuable preparation for a future career. 

As mentioned previously with the rapid changes of technology and the vast adaptation of e-commerce; e-marketing becomes a compulsory attribute that cannot be avoided nowadays for the sole reason of it ease and benefits. 

 

References 

Chaffey, D., Mayer. R., Johnston. K. and Ellis-Chadwick. F (2003) Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. Prentice Hall

Ching, H.L., Ellis, P. (2004), "Marketing in cyberspace: what factors drive e-commerce adoption?", Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 20 pp.409-29. 

Cox. A. , Chicksand. L.  and Ireland. P. (2002) “The impact of the Internet on marketing and sales.” Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal (5), 1 

Gilmore. A., Gallagher. D. and Henry. S. (2007) “E-marketing and SMEs: operational lessons for the future” European Business Review (19), 3 pp. 234 – 247 

Harker. M. J. and Brennan. R. (2003) “E-Marketing Action: An action learning approach to teaching e-marketing.” The Marketing Review (3), pp. 419-431

McCue, S. (1999), "Small firms and the internet: force or farce?", International Trade Forum, Vol. 1 pp.27-9.

Watson, R.P., Leyland, F.P., Berthon, P., Zinkham, G. (2002), "U-commerce: expanding the universe of marketing", Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 30 No.4, pp.333-47.

Yang. S. (2001) E-Commerce in Airline Business available online from <http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPAN001219.pdf>