Marketing Online

The Internet offers radically new possibilities for conducting business
more efficiently. Just look at what you can do now that you couldn’t
have done (or done easily) before:

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can display much more information about your company
and products—and sell them—on a web site operating 24
hours a day, 7 days a week.
• You can purchase more effectively because you can use the Internet
to identify more suppliers, put out requisitions online,
buy on market exchanges, and hunt for bargains on online
auction markets and used goods markets.
• You can place orders, transact, and make payments to suppliers
and distributors faster and at a lower cost by setting up extranets
with your partners.
• You can recruit more effectively using online job listing services
and e-mail interviews.
• You can supply better information and training to employees
and to your dealers through the Internet.
• You can set up an intranet to facilitate communication among
your employees, as well as between them and headquarters
and your mainframe computer. The intranet can feature newsletters, personnel information, product information, elearning
modules, company calendars, and so on.
• You can promote your products over a much broader geographical
area.
• You can more efficiently research markets, customers,
prospects, and competitors by tapping into the wealth of information
on the Internet and by carrying out focus groups
and surveys on the Internet.
• You can send ads, coupons, samples, and information to requesting
or targeted customers.
• You can customize offerings, services, and messages to individual
customers.
• You can substantially improve your logistics and operations
using the Internet.
The Internet provides a brilliant new platform for communicating,
buying, and selling. Its benefits will only grow over time. Business
leaders have lauded its potentials:
• Jack Welch of GE admonished his people to produce more
than a web site: “Embrace the Net. Bring me a plan how
you are going to transform your business beyond adding
an Internet site.”
• John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, aims to Web-ify Cisco’s entire
business: “Every customer interaction provided by a Cisco
employee that does not add value to the business ought to
be replaced by a Web-based function.”
• Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, sees the Internet as indispensable
to companies: “The Internet is not just another
sales channel. The future company will operate with a digital
nervous system.”
By embracing the Internet early, companies have greatly reduced
their costs compared to late-adopting competitors: