Bringing Science to the Art of Strategy Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Topic: - The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

Introduction

In the past, almost all the companies were using mass marketing channels and tools for the promotions of their products to the end consumer. Mass media refers to those technologies that are intended to reach a wide range of customers through a number of mass communication channels, i.e. broadcasting through radio, television, book, newspaper, film, recorded music, etc… However, with the development of technology a number of new channels were also introduced into the market for the promotion and enabling conversations among human beings regarding different businesses and their product portfolios. The Internet is one out of these technologies, which is now widely used for the marketing and promotional activities of different brands. According to a report there were about 360.98 million users of the Internet in 2012, whereas the total population of the world was 7.01 billion, which shows the importance of Internet from the marketing perspective. (See Appendices: region wise statistics of Internet users). Internet marketing uses a number of tools over the Internet for delivering different promotional marketing messages to the end customer, i.e. email marketing, social media marketing, mobile advertising, search engine marketing and web banners and ads, etc…

Internet Era is Changing Marketing Approaches

The Internet is the most interactive medium of communication and has been developed rapidly since 1990; therefore it is also described as “a network of networks”. Since its inception, the Internet marketing medium has been developed as a worldwide marketing and communication channel. It is a network of worldwide, publicly accessible inter-connected computers that transmits data with the help of packet switching by using the standard IP (Internet Protocol). Internet marketing is a large business and reported very handsome revenues of $31.74 billion in 2011 in the United States, surpassing those of the broadcasting and cable television. However, the revenue stream is increasing rapidly year over year and hit a historic high of all the mass media networks i.e. $20.1 billion by the end of 2013. It enables the enterprises to place their brands and product promotions on a widely available medium with relatively low cost, which reduces their administrative and advertising expenses. It also helps them to conduct the competitive analysis easily and conveniently by analyzing their competitor’s online business strategy. (French, T., LaBerge, L. & Magill, P. 2011)

Beside these monetary benefits of the internet, it has been observed that it is working as a broadly used conversation medium between human beings. The Internet is providing a platform for lots of conversations today that couldn’t have happened in the past, i.e. the era of mass media. Today a number of new concepts are available for the people, including Skype, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and dozens of other causes, websites and concepts that was not possible with the help of mass media communication activities. It has been evaluated that most of the highly recognized and well reputed brands depend upon direct marketing techniques for the promotion of their products and they have distinguished their brands on the basis of higher customer base; which shows that people believe to buy such products that are well known to them and mass media communication is a one way communication process, which is not capable of delivering the exact message required by the users. One of the basic characteristics that distinguishes Internet from the mass media communication is not only the provision of easy access to a wider range of contents, but the fact that it has a human voice, which is a part of the nature of human life. There are a number of websites with a wide range of information, but this is not what is exciting about the Internet. What is exciting is that it provides an opportunity to the people to go online and talk with other people and share their queries in their own voices. (Weinberger, D. 2002). This characteristic provides a platform for the users to share their views with one another, which makes it a two way communication process and also enable them to communicate their desires and needs for the concerned enterprise through the effective feedback mechanism.

Due to its nature, unlike the traditional mass media advertisement campaigns, it is very convenient to target a specific group of people through an email or social networking site survey. The analysis of a user’s website visiting history enables an organization to check the customer base and market position of a specific product and service. (French, T., LaBerge, L. & Magill, P. 2011) There is a high level of versatility in advertising through Internet because unlike other mass media advertising channels, Internet provides a wide range of techniques to keep the customers constantly engaged and keen about the new offerings and promotions of a company i.e. from incorporating different games and videos to audio messages and a number of other sections for query input.

Conclusion

On the basis of the above discussion it has been concluded that Internet marketing has changed the way marketing was done through traditional mass media communication channels. It provides a broader perspective of marketing brands and products to the end user through a number of cost effective and efficient manners. (French, T., LaBerge, L. & Magill, P. 2011) It provides a much better return on investment percentage to the vendors and enhances their goodwill in the market. It is also observed that Internet marketing is more convenient and easily accessible to the end users and provides them a more authentic and interacting medium to make...........................

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