Electronic Marketing: (Achieving Business Competitiveness via Electronic Marketing) By EMMANUEL TETE DARKO

September, 2012

Table of Contents

Page

Abstract:.3-4 Chapter 1: Preface...4-5 1.1: The Concept of E-marketing .5-7 Chapter 2: Review of Theoretical Concept..7-9 Chapter 3: Analysis of Business Competitiveness via Electronic Marketing.9-12 3.1: Why Businesses are Turning to Electronic Marketing............12-14 3.2: Limitations of Electronic Marketing.14-16 Chapter 4: The Way Forward...16-17 Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation.18-19 Reference..20

Figures

Page

Figure 1: Estimated Global Internet Usage and Population (March, 2012)...11

Abstract This paper evaluates achieving business competitiveness via E-Marketing Entrepreneurs use E-marketing tools in fashioning out marketplace to converge shoppers and merchants and is a promising marketplace with major prospects including dangers. In developing this work, measureable and qualitatively methods were exploited and that offered wealthier, appropriate source for elucidation and justification of upshots. Comprehensive and ethical matters explained the reasons for this choice, and that stressed equilibrium amid worth and substance of this paper, as well as externalities concerned, plus the attentiveness to information from diverse work background. Merging classical and quantifiable methodology contained in the work made the upshots invaluable for differing marketplace which avoided likely principled risk. Using qualitative and measurable data in obtaining information contributed to the realization of the objectives of the paper by examining, analyzing, measuring and comparing the data obtained. Desk research which entails collections of data from existing sources such as the internet; ready-made reports; company information; trade directories; trade associations were heavily explored and reading as well as discussing the topic with business practioneers and professionals helped in gaining better understanding of the meaning and implication of the exploration findings. The work was internally valid since history (past market activities) did not become a threat when externalities occurred by virtue of the passage of time and externally valid since sources of information were not controlled, and the paper can be said to be externally valid. Essential precautions were employed to greatly lessen errors in presentation and interpretation of data, thus the paper can be said to be reliable and the findings have an increased likelihood of being generalizable. This methodology was employed because it was much cheaper than field research and most often field research is applied when the information that is needed cannot be accessed from desk research. And since wide suite of information was gathered from this method, it would have been clearly a waste of scarce marketable resource to have carried out field research to obtain same information. The paper concentrated locally, nationally and regionally; the ethical issues had been rigorously verified by AIU Hawaii which has improved qualitatively the evidence collated including the work. The benefits of interacting with customers online results in minimum cost; consumers shop for 24 hours and at their own convenience; E-marketing tool achieves priceless buyer data to project potential demand, collection and analyzing buyer data and in the conventional marketing environment are complex and less cost effective; customer innovativeness is enhanced with E-marketing and new, but relevant product information will be available anywhere, anytime on firms product portfolio; it provides marketers with tools to for marketing segmentation and targeting; and some limitation included marketers engaging in unethical business behavior; operational efficiencies of the internet could be suspect at certain times; some consumers inability to speak, write and comprehend English. This work recommends the need to instill technological application into youth since they are more prone to technology application and students in particular need to be encouraged to settle bursary via E-cards; considering assertively the application of Mobile-Marketing as part of E-Marketing to enhance benefits and location will not in any way be a limiting factor with mobile phone to do business; entreat people
3

from diverse background to use internet and perhaps offer incentivized users in a strategy supportive manner; Personal data need to be treated with the highest respect by marketers to get the trust of customers; secured payment systems to secure consumer data; legislation to securitized online shopping; firms executives should be well motivated and trained professionally to handle customers demands, information, needs, and complaints; delivery period be used to forge social interactions for consumers to feel the touch and the trial of products purchased; E-marketers need to interact with buyers to avoid no delivery to delivery to wrong persons; showing buyers through education how delivery could be enhanced; using indigenous dialects and languages together with the English language to reach consumers from diverse background; information on value proposition has to be clear, relevant and timely; domestication and internationalization of web; Speaking to customers in a language they understand; having noticeably identify goals; considering E-marketing strategy as channel strategy; evaluating clients features both online and off line to establish distinctiveness in demographics, buying steps, and utilize the results to achieve competitive edge over rivals;

Chapter 1: Preface According to Zaphiris, Panayiotis, Ang, Chee Siang, (2009, pg. 2165),Understanding and leveraging the power of the four Ps of marketing has become one of the major factors that determines a companys marketing future survival or success. These 4 Ps however have been modified by technological evolutions, especially the web. Emarketing technology permits marketers to offer excellent customer service to satisfy buyers needs. Marketers are doing business differently and are constantly searching for novel ways to relate to buyers. E-marketing technology offers feedback loop between marketers and buyers. Marketers are becoming conscious of the importance of partnering closely with stakeholders including rivals. Information sharing on buyer habit including delivering sequence has become critical. Entrepreneurs are capitalizing on Emarketing technological development to perform in a timely fashion and wittily. And it has a striking force on the entire facet of marketing stretching from plans to stratagem via marketing mix and consumer behavior. The attraction over here is for core stakeholders imposing their personal regulations supported by their trade structure. Buyers actions and preferences are changing relative to buying and product fidelity and buyers are more attached than ever. Owing to technology, buyers place more premiums on communication from other buyers than communication from marketers. Buyers respond positively to E-marketers that appreciate their preferences and offer them superb service. There are many limitations to integrating E-marketing methodology strategically. Development in E- Marketing evaluates these difficulties in three thematic areas: the international environment, tactical/hi-tech sphere, and consumer behavior of online. buyers. E-Marketer are repeatedly evaluating the income prospects of E- marketing and are crafting commercial models to utilize the mammoth income prospect of this novelty.

The over-arching goal of this write-up is to attempt a description of electronic marketing and how businesses can leverage it use, highlight the positive impact of electronic marketing and how it affects business competitiveness, limitations of the use of electronic marketing and the way forward. This paper begins with preface which gives some background to electronic marketing; this will be followed by why businesses are increasingly turning to electronic marketing and there will be highlights on electronic marketing contribution to value creation for all stakeholders, drawbacks of adopting E-marketing, proposal on how to combat the drawbacks and conclusion. 1.1: The Concept of Electronic Marketing E-marketing is one of the critical aspects of marketing, thus understanding it within marketing context will be useful to this discourse. According to the American Marketing Association Board of Directors Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. (Approved October 2007) http://www.marketingpower.com/AboutAMA/Pages/DefinitionofMarketing.aspx/. It can therefore be stated that E-marketing is an aspect of a firms function and a toolkit for creating, communicating and delivering value to clients as well as managing client relationships in mode that profit firms and stakeholders. In this context E-marketing possesses methodologies and instruments that add to the attainment of marketing deliverables and targets. E-marketing is mushrooming at an exponential velocity and has impacted tremendously on earlier retailing oriented businesses, notably among the industries are: insurance, book, brokerage, leasing, banking, movie, ads firms, and even political parties have embraced this concept during campaigns for votes among others. According to Cruz-Cunha, Maria Manuela, Varajao Joao, (2011, Pg.133),E marketing is wider in span than online marketing, E-marketing is not only digital means like the network, electronic message, and wireless media, it also encapsulate electronic, customer relationship management structure and managing digital client information, among others. Dissimilarly, e- commerce and e-business have a wider and broader range vis--vis e-marketing. Romm-Livermore Celia (2012, Pg. 86) affirm that Emarketing comprises promotion of goods and services via internet by entrepreneur. E-marketing could as well be referred to as online marketing, internet marketing, imarketing and network marketing The definition of E-marketing should include the management of the buyers online product awareness, from pre-buying encounter through buying interaction to delivery and post-purchase interaction. Digital entrepreneurs need to exhibit concern about buyers online experiential since such experiential are the bases for buyers brands perception. The network presents firms ownership and management of every interface with buyers, which presents the opportunity to develop in general their understanding. E-marketing is fundamentally employing technological devices to: augment information trade amid the marketer and its market-space; obtain information for prospecting; tailor marketing communication to particular persons; deliver customized communication in efficient manner; deliver marketers services to customers; sustain durable sturdy
5

customer relationships. Adding together the media like tv, radio, and Internet, Eentrepreneurs could resort to devices including phones for diffusing ads. A shining example is ads on bus stations including communal installations. E- Booth in site like shopping centers could be meant for selling reasons. Firms can produce video leaflets, slot in ads frontage of feature films, and find couple of other ways to reach an audience through electronic means. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-electronic-marketing.htm E-marketing prospectively assimilates ads, merchandise ordering, delivery of electronic goods and services, and disbursement schemes. An electronic market-space is inter business information system to facilitate information exchange for consumers and suppliers relative to product and its prices. The E-marketer becomes an intermediary, and a market contestant, autonomous third party, or a multi-enterprise syndicate. Emarkets provide an electronic, or on-line, mechanism to assist business deal connecting consumers and sellers that potentially offer assistance for the entire chain in the needgratifying process. The business model from the buyer's viewpoint comprises actions which could be clustered into three segments: pre-buying purpose, buying, and postbuying interface. Each of these segments can be sustained digitally in E-market; however E-markets at the moment by and large regrettably facilitate barely pre-buying actions, although they are moving toward more buying consummation. E-marketing is characterized by tte--tte approach where the prospective buyer browses the internet single-handedly and consequently the communication reaches buyers, though multiple buyers can interconnect as well; also it appeals to definite interest. I.e. it markets requests to definite interest instead of getting to a wider demographic spectrum; it geosegment, geo-target and geo-market based on geo-position; E-marketing also computerizes details differently and this could be done by buyer choice. E-marketing system has the potential to assist entrepreneurs manage firm facts effectively to accumulate finite resource, diminish the sum of grunt work in their marketing interventions and optimize the thought effort, the sophisticated skills needed to concentrate on effective communication and marketing efforts targeted at satisfying organizational deliverables and target. This will not only advance the marketers base line, but also enhance marketings imperatives of firms by advancing the marketing personnel far afield proposal-writers to strategic assets. E-marketing techniques are sprouting swiftly as original technologies have expanded, however countless entrepreneurs continue to struggle with the basics of starting. An effective E-marketing plan should have, at a least: firm website, email function able to maintain lists and groups, email function able to send and receive HTML-formatted communication, shared firm mission, staff and contact file, adobe Acrobat software for producing universal-format electronic do. Rethinking the business model could mean E-marketers must support the commercial model that will make business sustainable. With most marketers, going online will require essential review of all operations. Electronic brands present fantastic buyer know-how than their global partners, thus making cash by tapping into wider income and turnover pools than a single global business could achieve. The success of an E-marketing foray rests on the skill with which two or more of the under listed models are combined. Channel supporter- using the Internet more to buttress current business canal other than generating supplementary selling. Outside integrated channel support; loads of brick-and-mortar firms could employ the web to
6

enhance their buyers understanding of their business propositions. Some can tie together the webs interactions with the view of improving merchandise improvement and product- mix by engaging client reactions online. Provision of counseling and data- marketers providing customers impartial recommendation for a charge. Alternatively, marketers can gather, process, and sell information via online. Sale model- cumulating salesperson and, or goods and services to make possible business deal for consumers. Numerous firms could attain achievement as online auctioneers. Salespersons can offer the content; society could match suppliers with buyers; and fee on sales and ads proceeds can produce business. Perpendicular form- Taking the greatest advantage of the Internet is the perpendicular form, which focuses on a product. Potentially, it offers specific data, recommendation and right of entry to an area with general welfare.

Chapter 2: Review of Theoretical Concept This chapter reviews the existent literature relating to the study, namely: Marketing Your Business : Make the Internet Work for You, Get Into Exports, Learn About Products and Pricing by Westwood, John (2011). The chapter then focuses on the immediate discipline, which relates to the topic: Achieving Business Competitiveness via Electronic Marketing. Regarding the relationship of the paper and the concept review, the previous literature concentrated on the appliance of internet in doing all aspect of marketing to grow businesses at the marketplace, this paper concentrates on achieving business competitiveness via E-marketing. The Similarity in both studies (previous and current) will be looking at the merits in the application of E-marketing in contemporary business. The concept review provides a wide analysis on issues relating to how internet and the web work in growing businesses. Therefore, the findings that the internet: is just about the most significant tool available to ensure business growth and that quarter of the global population has embrace it; provides a key trade channel for diverse value propositions and majority of businesses irrespective of scale apply it in trading; considerable number of industrial businesses rely on their websites to offer information on their value proposition and trade results were evaluated. The significance of the previous studies is that, it facilitated the analysis of available information before writing this paper. In view of this, research problems are better understood, and provided good background to the study. This paper can be justified based on its ability to satisfy the existing gap in the concept review, along with other potential danger. Firstly, no previous paper has been prepared on this work achieving business competitiveness via electronic marketing. Little or no emphasis has been given to this subject especially when most firms are heavily using brick and mortal more often than E-marketing have. A number of studies have been done to investigate and highlight the concept of E-marketing marketing but the inadequate study into the viability of E-marketing in growing business has created a research gap, this study aims to partially fill that gap. Secondly there are still couples of firms especially small and micro businesses that are confused as to whether Emarketing will positively impacted on their bottom lines and thirdly reading of wide range
7

materials from the online web, books journals news items and informal discussions with colleagues were sourced in putting up this paper and finally this work makes valuable contributions to theory, policy and practice. The focus of the concept review was to offer a practical guide in application of differing aspect of marketing in developing and growing businesses in the era of internet drive and not to offer an academic textbook. Westwood, John (2011, PG. 11), looked at this issue from the internet age of marketing value proposition perspective, and he contended that There is much talk about a new marketing for the internet age. Essential marketing standards and assumptions remain the same, but several tools change continuously. Some old methods have fallen by the wayside, some have been adapted and many completely new ways of marketing your business and your products have evolved. Many of the new methods allow you to do things much more quickly and much more thoroughly than was possible even a few years ago. Westwood, John (2011), style of presentation is simple and logical, but suitable to the subject, readers and the purpose of the author. This book is pregnant with lot of summaries of key marketing principles and theories. He resorted to the combination of explanation of marketing theories, dialogue, discussions, exposition, narration and descriptions, illustrations, statistics, tables, curves, maps, charts and diagrams as his method of presentation and is evident in the manner he cited examples of business that apply online shopping such as www.amazon.co.uk and www.expedia.co.uk. All in books and CDs sales in page 85 Also his linkages of marketing ideas to remarks made by business leaders such as In an interview with the Sunday Times, Paul Polman, chief executive of Unilever said, I dont see any reason why Unilever cant double in size. Polman has put more money into marketing. He went on to say: If you need to restructure, you put a financial person in. If you need to grow, you put a marketing person in. on marketing as a catalyst to business growth among other scenarios depict his writing style. Westwood, John (2011, Pg 1). As said by Westwood, John (2011, Pg. 84),The internet is a worldwide system of interrelated CPU networks using standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to supply users worldwide. But practically the internet is just about the most important tool that can help grow businesses. In pages (1-2), he posits that The internet is still developing and expanding and that firms can conduct market research online as desk research which has become online research. Instructively he contended that businesses need a website and the facility is needed by most businesses for customers to patronize their value proposition online. Further, he posits Hardware platforms are converging and internet and mobile phone technologies are converging. These transformations contain gigantic ramifications for marketers. And in page 84 he strongly did not interpret this to mean firms will ultimately be building all sales online via website, although it is inexorable for some firms. According to him, from carrying out market research to doing e-mail shots, the internet offers increasingly methods of business expansion in a cost-effective way and this does not result in extinction of previous ways of doing business; rather, firms possess powerful supplementary modalities. Additionally, he enunciates websites drives down prices, since the buyer is able to surf the web and compare prices from diverse suppliers. Most industrial businesses at the moment use their website to offer information on their solution propositions as well as publicizing their business actions and results successes. According to him, website offers small companies the platform to exhibit an
8

impression of being large and knowledgeable Westwood, John (2011, Pg. 85-86). And in page 135 he opined that E-marketing has brought about big transformation in marketing tactics and is relatively cheap and has the potential for reaching large numbers of customers. E-mail is the perfect vehicle to build lifetime relationships with customers. In summing up, he recommended customers need to benefit from using marketers website and find it effortless to navigate around since the website is a shop window that is open 24/7. He concluded in page 97 by saying Hardware platforms are converging, internet and mobile phone technologies are converging and this convergence will continue. One striking feature of his arguments was that, the use of internet clearly was not the exclusive method of doing business and becoming competitive and he lucidly acknowledged other methods of doing business will not die as a result of the rapid emergence of internet and web. Westwood, John (2011), in his study, failed pinpoint the constraints in applying Emarketing in an attempt to attain competitiveness at the marketplace and a significant egregious in his presentation was the concentration of only the benefits of applying internet and web in business, and this does not provide the flipside of the argument for businesses to fully appreciate the nitty-gritty of E-marketing. His thought created a regrettable impression that E-marketing was all about internet application in business and that depicts his shortsightedness in the use of the concept in present day business. Though he acknowledged the existence of other methods beside the use of internet and the web, he could not mention the alternatives; neither did he provide any pros and cons of such alternatives. The demonstration of Westwood, John (2011, 99), in his summary that internet is a powerful tool for the growth of businesses is giant step in guiding businesses on what to do to expand the net worth of their businesses. Not only this but also espousing the dramatic benefits marketers could derived from the application of the tool is a testimony of attaining his objective of offering a practical guide to show businesses multiple marketing aspects to expand their business in the internet age, rather than offering an academic textbook. Chapter 3: Analysis of Business Competitiveness via Electronic Marketing Millenium Villages Project-International Non-Governmental body has extensively employed E-marketing in its health intervention delivery to the underprivileged communities in Bonsaaso-Ghana. For instance Child Count Plus (CC+), which is Short Message Service (SMS) application and platform that enable health staff send real-time health report to the CC+ server for timely and relevant information for managers to take prompt and informed health related decisions for quick implementation, this ensures effective monitoring of health activities, thus optimizing field performance and in no doubt ratifies the power of incorporating technology in business. Ghana Commercial Bank, (GCB) an indigenous banking financial institution has seen the tremendous benefit of applying E-marketing to the extent that, the bank is willing to invest in technological drive in that direction. The bank is in readiness to deploy ATMs
9

that will accept deposits from its clients and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the bank, Kojo Addae Mensah is of the view that it constitute a segment of the GCBs strategy to explore E- channels to optimize profitability. The COO of the bank however strongly contends banking actions cannot absolutely be executed oblivious of brick and mortar. Nevertheless a stage will emerge where the need for brick and mortar will be limited http://business.myjoyonline.com/pages/news/201208/92558.php The application of E-marketing has enabled both indigenous and multi-national banks operating in Ghana to optimize their sales values. For instance, data from Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) has shown, across various ezwich transactions indicates whereas patronage increased for a good number of services by over 50 per cent on the average between January and March this year, the usage shot up by huge margins between March and June and the value of sales transactions concerning e-zwich increase from over about 200,000 US dollars by a conversion rate (USD) in January to 2.25m USD by June. http://business.peacefmonline.com/news/201208/129032.php Cal bank an indigenous financial institution is one of the few banks that has embraced E-marketing and this has been a contributory factor for its current impressive liquidity position and has moved from 13th position in June 2011 to 7th as the largest bank in Ghana in June 2012 following the growth of its assets by 64 per cent over the period under discussion. http://business.peacefmonline.com/finance/201208/130629.php on the flip side African economies and Ghana in particular is heavily less cashless to the degree that customers in possession of E-cards notably: Master and VISA cards ironically often shop without them, instead they walk to withdraw from the Automated Teller machines (ATMs) and get to the shopping malls to transact business. Rural banks, micro credit financial institutions in my area of operations for example (Amansie West District) are virtually adamant to this startling revelation of the power of Emarketing, are regrettably still doing business in no different ways that makes them poor in terms of value. Imperatively, lots of prospective buyers with E-cards in Ghana for instance scout for products locally and online to consider price differentials. And once they find their preference that is competitive with regards to price they buy with their E-cards. Lots of people these days buy vehicles from abroad via bidding in Ghana through the power of technology and have created an immensely keen competition for the local dealers. Another interesting point is that there lots of businesses in Ghana that trade in traditional items that meet the needs of people abroad, but they are unable to trade just because they have refuse to employ technological channels and this results in missed business opportunity. This is less bizarre since Ghana Government itself has not integrated technological drive in its governance. Payments of Civil and Public servants staff are done to the various banks with checks when for example E-payments channel exist as a viable option sooner than later Ghana is most likely to be side-lined global ly, granted that, she does not leverage on the technological platform. In view of this, Ghana Government and marketers stand to benefit if there is a public-private partnership to construct and strengthen the needed infrastructure-broadband, network, interconnectivity for all to embrace the technological explosion. It is imperative to
10

underscore the point that some Government agencies have to a limited extent revolutionized some of its operations by integrating electronic channel in them; notable among them are passport office of the Ghana Immigration Service, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, Kumasi Metropolitan Authority, Registrar Generals Department are few Government agencies that transact business online. In a sharp contrast, Finland has increased its technological investment budget ranks first in technology achievement index in connection to creation and application of technological drive and this has been phenomenal in the life of the citizenry and this accounts for why Ghana is far following Finland. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_tec_ach-economy-technologicalachievement#definition. Most businesses in the developed world significantly rely on E-marketing in all facet of marketing and that has been the secrete of the rapid growth of businesses in particular their economies in general, this is attested by a renowned Ghanaian economist Mr Kwame Pianim (2012), when he posit it is not startling that Apple has become the foremost global enterprise regarding value. http://business.peacefmonline.com/economy/201208/130452.php Figure 1: Estimated Global Internet Usage and Population (March, 2012) Global Population Internet As a %age of regions Users Population Africa 1,037,524,058 139,875,242 13.5 Asia 3,879,740,877 1,016,799,076 26.2 Europe 816,426,346 500,723,686 61.3 Middle East 216,258,843 77,020,995 35.6 North 347,394,870 273,,067,546 78.6 America Latin 597,283,165 235,819,740 39.5 America/Car rib Oceania 35,426,995 23,927,457 67.5 /Australia Global Total 6,930,055,154 2,267,233,742 32.7 Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm As a %age of Global Users 6.2 44.8 22.1 3.4 12.0 10.4

1.1 100

Judging from the data in figure 1 above, the global population and internet users are estimated to be 6,930,055,154 and 2,267,233,742 respectively with 32.7% of the global population using internet in one way or the other. It should be mentioned that not all of this percentage are or will be buyers of businesses solution propositions since a segment of this is most likely to be children and the aged who though may be influencers in buyer-decision making process. Given that the 32.7% of global internet users are all buyers and apply the internet in transacting business, then, it clearly indicates as many as 67.3% of the global population are not patronizing internet marketing and this could affect the growth of most businesses that exclusively rely on E11

marketing. It should be mentioned that a significant proportion of the 67.3% group may be holders and users of E-cards who transact business but not necessarily via the internet and that will definitely tumble the alarming growth uncertainty of E-marketers . For example most students in my village (Mansonkwanta Ghana) are holders and users of various E-cards from the banks; however internet accessibility has eluded them in the village thus not making it probable for them to be users. It is imperative to underscore the fact from the data that, Africa is woefully leveraging the benefits of E-marketing since a negligible 13.5%, and 26.2 %, of internet users vis-vis its population around the globe are from Africa and Asia, correspondingly; which is gravely below the global average of 32.7%. Whereas Europe (61.3%), Middle East (35.6%), North America (78.6%), Latin America/Caribbean (39.5%), Oceania/Australia (67.5%) are above the global average of 32.7%. This implies businesses and consumers alike might not benefit immensely from the application of E-marketing in Africa and Asia given the assumptions above. Perhaps this could be a contributory reason why most marketers on the African continent, especially indigenous ones are resorting to bricks and mortar aggressively and the continent is fast becoming less cashless economies; whiles the developed economies particularly Europe North America and Oceania /Australia are highly cashless economies. Studies have shown that about 64% of internet users in USA and UK crave businesses express knowledge of their preferred goods and services in email marketing messages and that the average US consumer gets 361 emails every week which is an increase of 20% over 2004. In addition these Internet users engage 11.8 brands via email, relative to 9.4 via facebook and barely 7.9 via twitter. http://blog.email-list.com/email-marketing-facts/emailmarketing-in-2011-industry-facts-and-statistics/ Insightfully, this scenarios paint a need gap in Africa and Asia markets for technological drive both for businesses and prospective buyers and marketers in the technological industry need to exploit this business opportunity. Until technological literacy of the youth and middle age who constitutes more than three-quarters of the buying populations improve to the level where they will be able to transact business electronically and businesses improving their technological capacity to attract enthusiastic technological driven customers the percentage of buyers applying the power of internet and other electronic models in transacting business in Africa and Asia will be a mirage.

12

3.1: Why Businesses are Increasingly Turning to Electronic Marketing Erik Qualman, (2009, Pg. 240) postulate that second-rate firms and products can no longer cover behind gigantic marketing budget. The era of uproar and imposing your communication on the prospective buyers are gone. Successful companies in societal media need to perform like amusement firms, publishers, or party schemers than as conventional advertisers . In order to compete effectively, there is the need for Emarketers to improve efficiency levels with the view to lessening expense. If Emarketing is correctly implemented, marketers time and wealth will be extensively protected by reinforcing business procedures and driving cost without sacrificing quality. A case in point is putting in public a firms press releases, by adding labor time for drafting the communiqu, the paper, images to buttress the event, postage cost media houses, web designer charge for updating, a start-up marketer will definitely incur colossal amount for releasing a communiqu to media houses. Via E-marketing technology, you can draft and save your press release in a database, connected to digital descriptions, and instantaneously send to your website and mail it to various media houses by a press of a button. The simply expense circumstances will be: writing time, retrieving data and clicking submit. While E-marketing provides stimulating prospect for lowering expense, unfortunately, some businesses are not enthused to embrace it. There are potentials to profit from when E-marketing is married with conventional marketing techniques, notably, sending a postcard mailer to broadcast a foremost revision to your website. Probably marketers stand a chance of saving between 15-20 percent off their expenditure in year one excluding labor, with some budget line either removed or reduced significantly. A high-quality E-marketing information method, similar to the above, can reduce marketers cost not less than 30 percent. Again the use of online shopping results in lower cost interactive with customers. As a result of this, consumers enjoy lower price rather than they would have without online shopping. For example consumers search cost will be reduced. There has been couple of times that friends and relations have purchase books, music and video and other relevant household items online with ease and save the trouble of walking round and checking on price list. Thus all other factors remaining the same, low prices will result in high sales and high profit. There is easy internationalization of products and this enables marketers to differentiate their offerings from competitors. Effectively planned and targeted E-marketing campaign could reach the appropriate buyers at a relative reduce expense compared to conventional marketing methodology .www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1075384999&type=RESOURCES It is imperative to note that consumers have twenty four hours shopping time online and this is done at their own convenience. There is little to think about location and finding items to purchase. There is no risk of traveling and consumers shop at their own convenient time and on any day; verifies supply-chain traceability information about commoditys history, recent, and future forms in the chain. Buyers will eventually enjoy the needed satisfaction which results in repetition of business. In effect businesses will be able to retain its existing customers with ease and more importantly these satisfied customers will intend win more customers for the firm via word mouthing. With this, firms could expand their customers base, increase sales and more importantly improve their liquidity position significantly as well as its investment (Fixed Assets), and enjoy
13

economies of scale. E-marketing can be used via online as a tool to achieve priceless buyer data to project potential demand. Whereas collection and analyzing of buyer data in the conventional marketing environment are complex and less cost effective. Imperative client data plays a crucial role in price mechanism and promotional trial. A case in point is the use of website in conducting promotional trials, since it has a wider audience coverage, and by arguably less expensive. Marketers become updated with new developments and meet clients needs to sustain client confidence. This is corroborated by Mindaugas Kiskis (2010, Pg. 352) when he posits that E-marketing provides the quickest and cost effective modality of providing prospective buyers with product development information that could serve the interest of consumers. www.mruni.eu/lt/mokslo_darbai/jurisprudencija/archyvas/dwn.php?id%3D263152 E-marketing when used as communication media, could offer simplex (single-way), duplex (bi-way), or multiplex (multiple-way) communication, whereas conventional communication media offers single-way communication, notably TV, radio and print media. Clients via E-marketing could offer count-back to and communicate with marketers on their response to business propositions and more imperatively enhances product recall on the part of customers, whereas customers feedback allows for better decision-making, superior service, up-to-date information and sharper campaigns. In a related development online ad has for example an edge over TV and print media ads. TV ads generates prying whereas print media provides a bit more information, these force vanish within days since prospective buyers may seriously be challenged during recall process when they are prepared to purchase unlike online ads. From http://www.webseoservices.in/docs/emarketing.pdf by 2005, Procter and Gamble spent about 23% of their marketing account on online ads and that buyers demonstrate about 27% higher ability for brand recall after sighting online ads than before-vis--vis 26% increase with magazines, 23% with print media and 17% with TV. It is imperative to state the fact that online shopping ensures that the final delivery or transportation cost of goods to consumers will not be expensive. This is because one vehicle for example can move with maximum volume and weight and can organize its journey to be as short as possible with the distance between the delivery points being as close as possible. Customer innovativeness is enhanced with E-marketing, since new, but relevant product information is available anywhere, anytime on firms product portfolio. This increases word-of-mouth. Businesses could use E-marketing technologies to check if product they have exclusive patent right has been illegally introduced on same or identical marketplace, whereas consumers could get first hand product authentication information. Eventually consumers trust for firms offerings is momentously enhanced with marketers having the ability to protect their offerings and enjoy reduced losses of revenue from counterfeit trade. E-marketing provides marketers tools to effectively segment and target; its responsive nature allows firms to differ content mailed to consumers on their delivery list. Marketers can segment, that is splitting their list on the bases of segmentation, such as geographic location, purchase history, demography to customized communication with the view to improving conversion rate. Mathew Patterson (2010, Pg. 3,)

14

3.2: Limitations of Electronic Marketing Rashad Yazdanifard, Terry Agodi and Seyedi Alizadeh, (2011, Pg. 2) in an international conference on information communication and management put forward that, The stage at which undependable delivery system has affected all businesses is unspeakable. The subject on undependable delivery is an ever growing process since E-marketing attractiveness has never stopped heating the upwards customers find it a way to manage their time effectively with less anxiety but unreliability has been the issues keeping E-marketing users at bay http://www.ipcsit.com/vol16/3ICICM2011M005.pdf E-marketing does not inspire customers to be confident regarding financial security and this may significantly erode consumers confidence in marketers. With cyber crime on the ascendancy, criminals easily accessing credit and other business cards as well as personal information of consumers, consumers could suffer severe loss if their cards and vital information get into the hands of miscreants. Spam enables traders to advertise their products effectively and cheaply by e-mails and other forms of media. It shifts the cost of ads to consumers, takes their time. http://www.justice.gov.tr/ejournal/pdf/commercial_electronic_marketing.pdf Marketers could engage in unethical business behavior. For instance there have been couple of complaints in Britain, typically online consumers register to shop with one of the online retailers and in theory are offered the full range of products in the shop. It typically takes 30-40 minutes to complete a weekly shop. The shoppers book a one hour delivery slot and pay a small amount for the service. A picker goes around the store, a van is loaded up and the shopping gets delivered. However, crucially the online prices are guide prices and the actual price paid can vary significantly. Another problem is item substitution, the main supermarket websites are not real-time, so consumers may order items that are out of stock. When this occurs retailers tend to substitute items that consumers find woefully inadequate. Another common complaint is that supermarkets use their online services to offload stocks of food close to its best before date. Consumers have to eat it quickly or throw it away. Another complaint is that even if a substantial number of items are missed off the delivery, customers have to pay the full delivery costs. University of Leicester, (2006, Pg. 116). Operational efficiencies of the internet could be suspect at certain times and this could erode the confidence customers repose in firms glued to E-marketing. For instance there could be slow web response times to inefficient site. E-marketing applications could not be less complex to access and use. Personally, I have not been able to effect tuition payment to AIU via VISA Card issued to me by Ecobank Ghana Ltd just because of technical inefficiencies on their operations as a result of this I have to resort to wire transfer though expensive. Traditions play a crucial part in evolution of E-marketing; online shopping for example rely on credit/debit card transactions and other cards, that distinguish several markets money-based customer habit. In less developed economies, most people neither possess personal computers nor are computer literate, and granted that they are computer literate; their incomes levels could be awfully low that they may not be able to
15

afford personal computers. For all you know, these consumers constitute the greatest proportions. In view of this the market share and ability to make profit will be inversely affected. It is in view of this that Krishnamurthy Sandeep, (2006, Pg. 238) assert that cultural barriers may limit the success of multinational, small and medium scale firms global e-marketing communications. Cultural multiplicity is related to differing values, viewpoint and jargon of global consumers. Imperatively, not all consumers of less developed economies in particular can speak, write and comprehend the Queens language (English) and since most of these websites are respectfully designed in English, it will be extremely difficult if not impossible for that segment of consumers to transact business via E-marketing. Consumers with computer literacy, could even been found wanting in search for all product information, given that, product information is ware-housed in several settings, as basic production information might be in firms confidential database, and product certificate information might emerge from Central authority catalog, thus full cross-operability of data sources which is indispensable might be missing. In E-marketing, consumers will not feel the touch, trial or any other sensory stimuli and the social interaction of buyers and sellers will be missing. These adverse effects if not dealt with, has the potential of contracting sales since some customers may not be interested in conducting business with firms glued to E-marketing and the resultant effect will be low profit levels.

Chapter 4: The Way Forward Feltenstein, Tom, (2010, Pg.401-2), admits E-mail campaigns and web site strategies can produce effective results when used well and thoughtfully. And that always the customers permission is sort before sending anything by e-mail. E-marketing when developed, serves as tools for marketers to strategically enhance their competitiveness. Business leaders need to appreciate the new reality which has created a borderless marketing environment that enhances cross border value supplementary interventions and any marketer that shuns it, does so at its own peril, E-marketing is a necessity marketplace tool for businesses that want to survive and grow to their elastic frontiers. Trust is progressively more becoming critical for buyers and would want personal data be treated with the highest respect by marketers. Secured payment systems could be employed to ensure the security of consumers financial and personal data. Technological as well as legislative instruments need to be employed to securitized Emarketing especially with online shopping. Some degree of risk is involved in any consumer purchase. In addition to this, firms executives should be well motivated and constantly trained to handle customers demands, information, needs, and complaints among others in a professional manner. This is how customers will feel secured and safe in giving personal details and information. Hence the implementation process should be accompanied by trust-building activities. The delivery period could be used to forge social interactions as well as consumers feeling the touch and the trial of products purchased. This is a sure way to intangiblize the intangibility aspect of E-marketing. Aside this, e-marketers need to interact with
16

buyers to confirm delivery information to avoid no delivery to delivery to wrong persons. Thus, E-marketers should show buyers through education how delivery could be enhanced. The use of more other indigenous dialects and languages together with the English language to reach more consumers from diverse background should be explored by marketers to be more efficient and enjoy sustainable competitive advantage. For E-marketing to be efficient, information on marketers value proposition has to be clear, relevant and timely as much as possible. There should be domestication and internationalization of web. Speaking to customers in a language they understand best have a strong attributes and add to customer experiential excitement, this in fact is the way forward. When E-marketers are the owners of technological infrastructure they possess, it will optimize their efficiencies level since they will have absolute control over whichever market space they operate. Khosrowpour Mehdi (2006, Pg. 531) contends it is critical for companies to evaluates the development of technological infrastructure in countries targeted through the internet. The suitability of the internet channel for marketing communications will be lower in those countries with less developed telecommunication infrastructure or unaffordable prices for internet access. Above all every marketer with the intent to apply E-marketing should have noticeably identify goals that will drive it E-marketing efforts and the following should be answered: why online? Does my firm have a full understanding of online marketplace? What do buyers consider prior to purchasing? What steps do buyers employ when purchasing? What are my intentions? What gains are anticipated? How do I get there? How do I know that am there? These will be your guiding tools to avoid E-marketing failure. In an attempt to attain the above benefits espoused, E-marketers need to consider Emarketing strategy as a channel strategy where electronic channels and electronic media facilitate other channels such as communication and distribution and this demands prioritizing the use of channels in targeting, positioning, value offerings electronic media mix with the view to acquiring fresh clients and sustaining existing ones. It is imperative to assert that marketers need to evaluate their clients features both online and off line to establish distinctiveness in: demographics, buying steps, and utilize the results in constructing E-marketing strategy which will go to the extent of bringing offline clients on board to achieve competitive edge over rivals. Incorporating situational evaluation, fashioning objective, approach and control mechanisms is a must have for all E-marketers and prospective E-marketers. Judging from the level at which African economies are dominated by cash transactions, there is the urgent need to inculcate the use of technology into the youth since they are more prone to applying technology and this let them develop that habit. Students in particular need to be encouraged to settle bursary by the use of E-cards. Businesses need to begin to consider aggressively the application of Mobile-Marketing as part of Emarketing since that offers an enhance benefits because with the use of mobile phone, location will not in any way be a limiting factor to accessing business actions whatsoever. Marketers as part of their programs should entreat people from diverse background to use internet and perhaps offer incentives to entice more to transact business electronically, considering the opportunities that exist within the users gap

17

Chapter 5: Conclusion And Recommendation The multibillion questions is, has E-marketing enable marketers to rethink about the consumer? And how will marketers integrate E-marketing initiatives with existing value chain processes and technology infrastructure? Consumers have been offered alternative marketplace and this has complicated consumer behavior since buyer decision making process has become thornier than before. Marketers and consumers alike will appreciate each others differing concern and need to leverage that in their need-gratifying efforts. E-marketing is an electronic digital market-space where sellers and buyers transact business. For E-marketing to be efficient and address the needgratifying efforts of both marketers and valued consumers, it is recommended that storage and transfer of consumer data be strictly protected with legislation; information on marketers offerings need to be clear, relevant and timely as much as probable. Unlocking attractive E-marketing model means marketers need to review their viewpoints on Internet and marketing. Off-line entrepreneurs have blossomed by delivering constricted solution to narrow consumer needs. Online consumers on the other hand expect firms they patronize to satisfy fuller spectrum of their preferences. Marketers need to create full-blown Internet businesses and digital awareness if they are to thrive. E-marketing to a larger extent has the potential to optimize the operational efficiency of businesses which will significantly shrink cost, impart positively on wealth creation and robustly enhance the competitiveness level of firms. Customers search cost is low with E-marketing, which results in low cost triggering high sales and improving the liquidity position of firms. Information gathering about prospective customers will be brisk and more critically firms could use E-marketing to experiment promotional sales, sight should be lost on the fact that there is superb feedback loop with customers and facilitates product recall when E-marketing is employed by firms. With entrepreneurs targeting impulse buyers, consumers who shop and conduct business irrespective of geographical location, doubtlessly E-marketing is rapidly up surging, thus the need for it. E-marketing will uniquely transform Consumers lifestyles as result of facilitation in their transaction regardless of location and time. Pablos, Patricia Ordonez de, (2011, Pg. 182), opine that conducting E-marketing activities by micro firms could change the phase of global business. It is essential to highlight that E-marketing in spite of its good side could be less inspiring to potential and loyal customers when financial arrangement with the system is unsecured. There is a great possibility for firms to be unethical and unprofessional with the use of E-marketing, delivery time of orders could leave much to be desired, substitutions of actual orders made by customers with others, incompleteness of orders made but yet charging full delivery cost, using the trade channel to deliver either unwholesome products or product very close to its expiring date. These among others in deed sum the unprofessional behavior of marketers. When E-marketers for instance adopt e-mails in communicating to prospective consumers, there is the need to enlighten addressee as regards the nature of e-mail s/he will be getting. Such model need to be scaled up since developing digital brands around consumer experiential could be less cost effective. Varied revenue sources
18

eventually create feasibility for E-marketing to offer a comfortable experience to customers; because online customers anticipate mixture of merchandise variety and useful profit varied from expectations of off-line customers, marketers need to espouse numerous differing business models to thrive. Brands and organizations are compelled to modify their ads strategies to connect customers to generate a discourse, instead of pushing communication to them. Eentrepreneurs must reflect on how to offer electronic devices that meet market needs and also drive the marketplace in different bearings, with unwrap designs and tools tolerating novel applications to grow based on their strategies and podiums. Solution marketers must appreciate collaborating with unusual players, cognizance of the fact that E-marketing application is part of the solution. The efficiency of a delivery scheme cannot be the exclusive responsibility of the marketers but also buyers as well, buyers for example must offer accurate and unambiguous addresses for delivery purposes, what in some cases occur is, buyers blatantly disregard such crucial information. This unfortunate situation could be avoided if marketers call buyers to ascertain the authenticity of delivery address given. It is strongly recommended that all businesses irrespective of scale, adopt E-marketing as a result of the ease with which business transactions could be executed and renewed with technology. In any way it serves the interest of buyers and marketers. How marketers review and reposition their business model to take advantage of the increasing change in technological devices that affect our economic, political, environment and social lives remain the challenge in the next century. The more local businesses in Africa and Asia in particular resort to E-marketing, the better for their economies since it has macro economics implications and this destabilizes the strength of the local currencies. There is the need for strong public-private partnership to address the alarming situation. Sight should not be lost on the fact that telecom operators need to be efficient in building interconnectivity for all stakeholders and this require for legislation to back it. Finally, the low technological application level in Africa and Asia creates a need for businesses and prospective buyers and entrepreneurs in knowledge based economies have an opportunity to exploit. Until the knowledge base of the buying populations improves transact business electronically to match with improved businesses technological capacity wealth and value creation will be plummeting in such economies.

19

REFERENCE 1. Cruz-Cunha, Maria Manuela, Varajao Joao, (2011). Innovations in SMEs and Conducting E-businesses: Technologies, Trends And Solutions.Business Science Reference 2. Erik Qualman, (2009). Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms The Way We Live and Do. Edition1. Wiley 3. Feltenstein, Tom., (2010). 501 Killer Marketing Tactics to Increase Sales, Maximize Profits And Stomp Your Competition. Edition 2. McGraw-Hill Professional 4. Khosrowpour Mehdi, (2006). Encyclopedia of E-Commerce, E-Government, And Mobile Commerce. Idea Group Reference 5. Krishnamurthy Sandeep, (2006). Contemporary Research in E-marketing. Vol. 2. Idea Group Pub 6. Mathew Patterson, (2010). Create Stunning HTML Email That Just Works. Edition 1. Site Point 7. Mindaugas Kiskis, (2010). Legal Regulation of Electronic Marketing Pablos, Patricia Ordonez de, (2011). Electronic Globalized Business And Sustainable Development Through IT management: Strategies And Perspectives. Business Science Reference 8. Rashad Yazdanifard, Terry Agodi and Seyedi Alizadeh, (2011). International Conference on Information Communication and Management. IPCSIT Vol. 16. Lacsit Press, Singapore. 9. Romm-Livermore Celia (2012). Gender And Social Computing: Interactions, Differences And Relationships. Information Science Reference. 10. University Of Leicester (2006), Retail Marketing MN7332. Learning Resource: 292 High St. Cheltenham, G150 3HQ England 11. Westwood, John (2011). Marketing Your Business: Make The Internet Work for You, Get Into Exports, Learn About Products and Pricing. Kogan Page. 12. Zaphiris, Panayiotis, Ang, Chee Siang, (2009). Human Computer Interaction: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, And Applications. Information Science Reference. 13. http://business.myjoyonline.com/pages/news/201208/92558.php 14. http://business.peacefmonline.com/economy/201208/130452.php 15. http://business.peacefmonline.com/news/201208/129032.php 16. http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm 17. http://www.ipcsit.com/vol16/3-ICICM2011M005.pdf 18. http://www.justice.gov.tr/e-journal/pdf/commercial_electronic_marketing.pdf 19. http://www.marketingpower.com/AboutAMA/Pages/DefinitionofMarketing.aspx/ 20. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_tec_ach-economy-technologicalachievement#definition 21. http://www.webseoservices.in/docs/emarketing.pdf 22. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-electronic-marketing.htm 23. www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1075384999&type=RESOU RCES 24. www.mruni.eu/lt/mokslo_darbai/jurisprudencija/archyvas/dwn.php?id%3D263152
20

21