A research report

On
The study of reach of DIGITAL
MARKETING IN INDIA
Submitted in partial fulfillment of
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA)

Conducted by
APJ AK TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW

Under the guidance of Submitted By

Dr. Ragini Johari Sudhir Kumar Gupta
Professor & Head, School of Management MBA IV Semester
AITM, Lucknow Enrolment No.1674870032
SESSION- 2017-18

ANSAL TECHNICAL CAMPUS, LUCKNOW

SECTOR-C, POCKET-9, SUSHANT GOLF CITY, SHAHEED PATH, LUCKNOW
www.aitmlucknow.edu.in

1
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The work done under the title "A RESEARCH REPORT ON REACH OF DIGITAL

MARKETING IN INDIA" represents not just my efforts to realize the goal of learning &

training in fact it reflects a combination of able guidance, recommendations & suggestions of a

number of people.

I am thankful to my HOD, Department of Management, Ansal Institute of Technology and

Management Lucknow and My Mentor Dr. Ragini Johari for giving me this golden opportunity

to do this wonderful project. It helped me in doing a lot of research and I came to know about so

many new things I am really thankful to them.

I am thankful to all the people who have shared their knowledge and cooperation towards my

project.

Sudhir Kumar Gupta

M.B.A. 4th semester
Roll No. 1674870032

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 DECLARATION

I SUDHIR KUMAR GUPTA hereby declare that this project report entitled “A study on The
Reach of Digital Marketing in India”, submitted by me, under the guidance of Dr. RaginiJohari,
HOD, of ManagementDepartment, of AnsalTechnical Campus,Lucknow is my own and has not
been submitted to any other institute.

Candidate’s name

Sudhir Kumar Gupta

M.B.A. 4th semester
Roll No. 1674870032

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

S.No. Content Page No.

1 Executive Summery 6
2 introduction to marketing 7
3 literature review 9-10
4 objective of marketing management 11
5 evolution on marketing 12-14
6 digital marketing 15-16
7 objectives of digital marketing 17-18
8 advantages and disadvantages of digital marketing 19
9 pull digital marketing 20-26
10 push digital marketing 27-35
11 digital marketing strategy mix 36-38
12 digital marketing mix 39-41
13 understanding the internet customer 42-44
14 critical success factor of digital marketing 45-47
15 benefits of digital marketing 48-49
16 digital advertising 50-51
17 digital marketing vs traditional marketing 51-52
18 Objectives 52-54
19 features of digital advertising 55-57
20 types of digital advertising 57-63
21 Consequence 64-65
22 marketing research 66
23 social media marketing 67-72
24 research methodology 73-74
25 data analysis (based on questionnaire) 75-86
26 Conclusion 87-89
27 case study: 90-93
a) dell 90-91
b) i pod 91-93
28 Bibliography 94
29 annexure(blank questionnaire) 95-98

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMERY
This project says about reach of digital marketing in India. The main purpose of this project is to

aware the people of the modern concept of digital marketing which is cost effective and time

saving concept.

Under this project I have described the concept of marketing, digital marketing and digital

advertising. I have described about the marketing mix, 7P’s of digital marketing, types of digital

advertising. I have given the example of dell and I pod Touch Company about how they used the

digital advertising to bring the awareness of the product.

The USP of this project is the case study about the companies namely; DELL and I POD

TOUCH, extended marketing mix, merits of digital marketing.

Under this project I have tried to study about the digital marketing in India and its effect, the

importance of digital marketing in the growing world or advanced world. Anybody reading this

project will surely get an insight of digital marketing concept and its growing importance.

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 INTRODUCTION
MARKETING
Marketing Spelled Pronunciation mar kiting which means:
1. The act of buying or selling in a market.
2. The total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the
consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling. At the beginning of the
century, social life was mostly local. It was followed by a period in which commodities were
produced on a mass scale. Consumer Marketing operated on mass marketing principles and
business primarily concerned itself with how to build the best sales force. At the end of the
century, there is an emerging global culture. The major driver of these changes is technology.
Technological change has moved steadily back focusing on the individual. These changes shape
the possibility and conduct of business. Marketing is especially tied to communication and
transportation revolution. As the tools and reach of marketing increase, the job and
responsibilities of marketers have evolved with them.

PHILIP KOTLER
Philip Kotler formalized this evolution with his book "Marketing Management". His key
stages are production, sales and brand management. Each of these is strongly motivated by
technological opportunities, which permit new methods and new opportunities. A fourth stage, a
focus on the individual customer, is also important. As the new technology of the Internet
develops, it reinforces the new marketing emphasis - which in many ways is a return to business
at the turn of the century.
In today’s technology driven world, a new fast paced
digital economy is emerging. Tomorrow there will be
companies that will exist only inside computer
networks. Most business transactions will be made
electronically, directly from the producer to the
consumer, bypassing the supply chain. In the digital
marketing environment, the consumer becomes an
integral player in the development of the product. In
fact, a consumer might build the product himself from
a wide array of parts provided by the Company. It is e-

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commerce that is changing the way products and services are conceived, manufactured,
promoted, priced, distributed and sold. The reason being that it is much cheaper; it allows vast
coverage and helps in serving the customer better.

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 LITERAURE REVIEW

The purpose of doing research in the area of digital marketing is because it seem huge,

intimidating and foreign. Businesses are looking for clearer picture to start but do not know

where and how to start doing digital marketing. In today’s time, social media channels such as

Face book, Twitter, Google and other social media firms have successfully transformed the

attitudes and perceptions of consumers and in the end helped revolutionized many businesses.

This was done through measurable vast network of customers with trustworthy data with real-

time feedback of customer experiences. It is much more convenient for businesses to conduct

surveys online with a purpose to get relevant information from targeted groups and analyzing the

results based on their responses. Potential customers can look for reviews and recommendations

to make informed decisions about buying a product or using the service. On the other hand,

businesses can use the exercise to take action on relevant feedback from customers in meeting

their needs more accurately. Digital marketing is the use of technologies to help marketing

activities in order to improve customer knowledge by matching their needs (Chaffey, 2013).

Marketing has been around for a long time. Business owners felt the need to spread the word

about their products or services through newspapers and word of mouth. Digital marketing on

the other end is becoming popular because it utilizes mass media devices like television, radio

and the Internet. The most common digital marketing tool used today is Search Engine

Optimization (SEO). Its role is to maximize the way search engines like Google find your

website. Digital marketing concept originated from the Internet and search engines ranking of

websites. The first search engine was started in 1991 with a network protocol called Gopher for

query and search. After the launch of Yahoo in 1994 companies started to maximize their

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ranking on the website (Smyth 2007). When the Internet bubble burst in 2001, market was

dominated by Google and Yahoo for search optimization. Internet search traffic grew in 2006;

the rise of search engine optimization grew for major companies like Google (Smyth 2007). In

2007, the usage of mobile devices increased the Internet usage on the move drastically and

people all over the world started connecting with each other more conveniently through social

media. In the developed world, companies have realized the importance of digital marketing. In

order for businesses to be successful they will have to merge online with traditional methods for

meeting the needs of customers more precisely (Parsons, Zinsser, Wait man 1996). Introduction

of new technologies has creating new business oppose.

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 OBJECTIVES OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Some examples of marketing objectives which meet these criteria are:-

 TO Increase company sales by 25% by 2016

 TO Achieve a market share of 30% for Product C within 3 years of launch

 TO Increase the percentage of customers who rate service as "excellent" from 80% to

85% within 18 months

 It is important that marketing objectives and marketing plans support the overall

objectives of the business. Below is an example of how business objectives translate into

marketing objectives and activities:

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 EVOLUTION OF MARKETING

In a lot of ways, Marketing is as old as civilization itself. From Ancient Greece to our modern

days, culture has based its trading and selling upon communication in order to move products

faster than the man next to him. I've always seen it as a concept much like Darwin's "survival of

the fittest" - or what we will call in this case - "the act of persuasion." Man is undeniably always

trying to outshine others, and when it comes to selling, the concept is not far from it.

Nevertheless, much of the philosophies we know today are rooted in techniques and

developments from the Industrial Revolution. Mass production coupled with advancements in

transportation and technology meant that businessmen needed a better strategy when it came to

the movement of goods. With nations applying laws against monopoly, how exactly does one

sell something when one's competitor is producing the exact same thing? Ash, enter the

marketer. This is when our profession is officially and truly born.

Corporations became aware of the need of individuals that would study markets and consumers -

its behavior patterns and steps to be ahead of the game. What started out as a resource that

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determined what an organization would produce, has transformed into a science that coordinates

why, when and how much of a good will be manufactured and where it will be sold. Companies

went from inward to outward thinking, and our contribution has never been as clear as it is today.

There have been major stages in the history of marketing, which are:

 The Trade Era: Production consisted in handmade goods that were limited and generally

traded through exploration.

 The Production Orientation Era: Enter the industrial age. Since goods were scarce,

businesses focused mainly in manufacturing. As long as someone was producing,

someone else would want to buy it. This orientation rose to popularity due to shortages in

the market, hence creating the foundation of Jean-batiste Say's famous remark: "Supply

creates its own demand."

 The Sales Orientation Era: After the Industrial Revolution, competition grew and focus

turned to selling. Marketing, branding and sales became an important pillar as outputs

surpassed demand, and companies competed for customers.

 The Marketing Orientation Era: From the second half of the 20th century onward, the

saturation of markets led companies to bestow upon marketers the opportunity to perform

on a more strategic level. Through a profound knowledge on the customer, these

professionals were involved in what the company would produce its distribution channels

and pricing strategy. Employees within an organization were also motivated to acquire

marketing knowledge, which set the grounds to clients obtaining a general brand

experience. But wait, there's more... According to recent publications, two new eras have

been added to the list:

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 The Relationship Marketing Era: The focus of companies shifts towards building

customer loyalty and developing relationships with clients. Authors such as Don

Peppers, Martha Rogers and Philip Kotler” were instigators of the importance of creating

bonds, considering that "the cost of attracting a new customer is estimated to be five

times the cost of keeping a current customer happy." (kotler

1997)

 The Social/Marketing Era: Concentrates on social interaction and a real-time connection

with clients. Businesses are connected to current and potential customers 24/7 and

engagement is a critical success factor. Consider how much marketing has changed in the

last century and will continue to shift as channels of communication, production levels

and a society alter. As markets expand and new marketing platforms emerge, the science

and practice of this profession is being transformed by the minute. What we consider

today to be the fastest way to reach our customers might be obsolete tomorrow. Therein

lays the beauty of this profession... change.

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 DIGITAL MARKETING

Digital Marketing promoting products and services using digital distribution channels to reach

consumers in a manner relevant, personal and cost-effective. Digital marketing includes many of

the techniques and practices contained within the category of Internet Marketing. More, it

extends beyond this by including other channels with which to reach people that do not require

the use of the Internet. As a result of this non-reliance on the Internet, the field of digital

marketing includes a whole host of elements such as: mobile phones, SMS and MMS, display

and banner ads, digital outdoor. In our present days, digital marketing covers more of traditional

marketing areas such as Direct Marketing by providing the same method of communicating with

an audience but in a digital way. This marketing method is more effective when a marketer

combines multiple channels in the message campaigns.

There are two different forms of digital marketing, each of which has its pros and cons, the most

important of them being shown in the next table

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Pull digital marketing involves the user having to seek out and directly grab (or pull) the content

while push digital marketing involve both the marketer (creator of the message) as well as the

recipients (the user), the marketer having to send (push) the messages to the users (subscribers)

in order for the message to be received.

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 OBJECTIVES OF DIGITAL MARKETING

1)TO Increase Sales:-

Increasing sales or leads is a top level digital marketing objective for many businesses because it
improves revenues and is easy to measure. Using key performance indicators (KPI), you can then
benchmark your progress towards achieving your objective and you can track this in your
spreadsheets. An example of a SMART objective would be: “Increase sales by 10% from
existing customers by Dec 2015”

2)To Improve conversion rate:-

This is another digital marketing objective that can be tracked in Google Analytics. By setting up
goal tracking in Analytics, you will have reports on conversions for your traffic sources,
campaigns, keywords, landing pages, locations and so on. With this data you can then track a
conversion rate objective like: “Improve organic traffic conversion rate by 25% by Nov 2015”

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3)Percentage of return visitors:-

The New vs. Returning visitors is a metric that is available in Analytics and it is easy to track.
Knowing how many visitors return is an important objective because it helps you see how
effective your business is at visitor and customer loyalty .This helps you to create a specific and
measurable objective that is relevant to your specific industry and an example is: “15% of
visitors should be returners by the end of the year”

4)Organic traffic volumes:-

Organic traffic is natural traffic from the search engine result pages. It is considered as free
traffic and is distinct from paid traffic. Lots of businesses have the objective to increase organic
visitor traffic by achieving high search engine rankings through implementing search engine
optimization.

To achieve this requires making changes to your website that are effective at improving rankings
and one of the important ones is including keywords in the

5)To Reduce bounce rate:-

Bounce rate in analytics is defined as people who enter your site and leave (bounce) rather than
continue viewing other pages. This is an important measure of the quality of your website,
because almost all businesses want their visitors to complete an action like purchase, contact or
download on their websites .The lower the bounce rate the better and many marketers say that a
bounce rate below 50% is good, however that differs from business to business.

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 Advantages and Disadvantages of the digital marketing
Pull digital marketing
Pros: • No restrictions in terms of
type of content or size as the
user determine what they
want.
• No technology required to
send the content, only to
store/display it.
• No regulations or opt-in
process required.
Cons: • Considerable marketing
effort required for users to
find the message/content.
• Limited tracking
capabilities – only total
downloads, page views, etc.
• No personalization –
content is received and
viewed the same across all
audiences
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Push digital marketing
• Can be personalized --
messages received can be
highly targeted and specific
to selected criteria – like a
special offer for females, 21
years old or over and living
in California.
• Detailed tracking and
reporting – marketers can
see not only how many
people saw their message
but also specific
information about each user
such as their name as well
as demographic and
psychographic data.
• High Return on
Investment (ROI) possible –
if executed the right way,
push messaging can help
drive new revenue as well
as brand reinforcement.
• Compliance issue – each
push messaging technology
has its own set of
regulations, from minor
(RSS) to heavily controlled
(email and text messaging)
• Requires mechanism to
deliver content – the
marketer has to use an
application to send the
message, from an email
marketing system to RSS
feeders.
PULL Digital Marketing

 Blog marketing

This activity refers to the fact that certain people, who have gained enough experience or

researchers choose to make their study, ideas, thoughts, reactions and dilemmas public, by

writing either a weblog accessible to everybody or one with restricted access, set for confidential

issues.

Blogs are seen as an authentic, uncensored way of expressing our ego and get to their final

version, ready to be published, a frequent and chronological one, of personal reflections and

favorite web links. A much newer, integrative concept expresses the shift from personal blogs,

made for our ego and personal experiences to those blogs which are used to the purpose of

professional communication.

A blog is a web page with a frequent set of posts on a subject or a variety of subjects, which,

more often than not, contains links to other Internet sites. They are organized in a reversed

chronological order, the latest one coming first on the page.

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The best blog audience is, in fact, the very makers of such diaries. Besides the fact that they are

interested in what the others write, pointing that thing out in their own blogs, they also refer to

those posts. The number of bloggers is steadily rising, since software devices come to be more

and more accessible. On-line blogs have witnessed an important evolution lately, up to 72

million, according to a Technocratic study, the Internet search engine specialized in blogs.

In March 2005 there were almost 8 million blogs, whereas in March 2007 their number increased

nine fold, up to 72 million on-line bloggers. Nowadays, 120,000 blogs are designed daily, as

compared to 25,000 in 2005.

As to the business field, one can benefit from using blogs so as to transmit information on supply

and demand. As a result, both clients and immediate feedback can be won. New methods of

efficient marketing include the making up of some “viral” companies, focused on the customer’s

needs, as well as challenging programs and competitions, which are meant to help them

disseminate further information. Specialists claim the management of a company can learn a lot

by reading blogs. Thus, they can have feedback information as to what their customers and

noncustomers think about the business they run.

We honestly believe that blogging can help each core fragment of what makes up a successful

and viable company. The core needs for any business are as follows: decent ideas; a great

product; visibility; a well-trained team of people who work hard to make the company succeed

You also need good marketing, great customer relations, an awesome sales force, decent

customer support, and a host of other factors. But if you have ideas, a product worth selling, a

solid team behind it, and potential customers, the rest will follow naturally.

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Creating Great Ideas

Every company has a lot of great ideas waiting to come to the surface. The problem with

bringing those ideas to the surface is threefold: giving ideas space to develop, helping ideas get

improved, and implementing the best ideas.

Often it takes only one person to come up with a great idea, but it may take 100 or more people

to support and implement that idea. If the idea loses support, the company will need another

great idea to keep going.

Great ideas can increase a business’s costs and people power, but they can also increase a

business’s revenue and marketing power. This is why large companies who live or die by their

great ideas employ researchers who spend their time seeking epiphanies.

The challenge for companies who invest in ideas is often that the best ideas don’t get to the top,

don’t get reviewed, or don’t even get considered. This idea barrier could be killing your

company. A truly open and internally viewable idea blog, or even individual employee blogs that

allow people to float new ideas for peer review, should allow the best ideas to rise to the surface

for selection and review.

Creating Great Products

The next challenge is deciding which great ideas get turned into products. Smart companies hire

people who are able to turn a great idea into a great product. These people, often called product

specialists or product managers, know customers, know the market, and know how to deliver

new products on time and on budget.

However, to do their jobs well, product specialists need to talk directly to customers. This is

where focus groups, customer demo days, and other customer-listening techniques come into

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play. Some companies even employ staff evangelists to work one-on-one with individual

customers to maintain a good relationship.

We all know cases in which even the most well-intentioned products underperformed. Relying

on a small sample of customers to reflect what the entire world desires is risky at best and

foolhardy at worst. If we can’t ask everyone in the world what they want, we are unlikely to be

able to deliver what everyone truly desires. With blogging, we can ask—if not the entire world,

then at least our entire blog readership, which are probably connected to and/or reading other

blogs all over the Net.

Increasing Visibility

Marketing is all about visibility—making the right people aware of the right product at the right

time.

We can say that marketing is about customers, and he’s right. The hard reality, though, is that

often marketing isn’t about individual customers. Often, it’s about creating a global message to

which individual customers will respond.

New methods of effective marketing include creating “viral” campaigns, customer-centric

events, and otherwise helping customers spread the word through incentive programs and

contests. Visibility is also sought through media reports, event sponsorship, and interactive Web

sites.

However, these visibility campaigns lack effectiveness on the one-to-one level. Companies

assume that millions of people will be contacted, but only a small percentage of these people will

respond.

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This method of marketing has its upside, but it doesn’t do anything to create relationships with

customers, create positive experiences, or create customer evangelists.

Having a Team

One of the best ways to build a great business is to create the team. Great teams will think up

great ideas, build visibility, and spot defects in products, which they will then correct. They also

can fix just about any problem, given the right resources, and is happy to take on just about any

challenge.

Unfortunately, great teams can be difficult to create and keep motivated. Anyone who’s built

successful teams knows that more often than not some particular “X Factor” will make or break

the team: often the ability to find common ground and common interests can be a make-or-break

issue.

The challenge for companies looking to enable these dynamic teams is in figuring out how to

enable employees to connect based on passion. Passion is an important part of any successful

team—without passion, a team will not only find itself quickly in a rut, but it will likely find its

members unable to gel, have fun, or help the company in a meaningful way.

Advertising and Personal Interactive Television

The boost in high frequency band satellite television and IPTV, the fact that broadcasting mobile

services will be the next important trend in mobile communication and the growing popularity of

peer-to-peer sharing of video files, lead to the advent of new advertising patterns, highly

competing with the classical video Roxana.

Thus, television is becoming a more and more personalized environment, allowing a clear

perception of the customers’ preferences. As users have more and more control over the type of

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advertising they want to watch, their opinions will be of uppermost importance, thanks to

technology. The main reason for which television channels should broaden their horizon

provided they want to stay relevant for

advertisers is the customers’ possibility to choose more and more from what they want to watch,

the time of their watching and the device the chosen program would be on.

Specialists in advertising wish the relationship between them and television channels would

change, given the new content broadcasting policy, fighting for the viewer and demand services

which allow the viewer to skip advertisements. As the content already including advertisements

targets mobile phones, brands and entertainment providers have started to appreciate the value of

a complex multimedia advertisement within programs.

Another possible business pattern can be the use of these demand services as a means to manage

a research on a faraway market in order to check people’s interest in new products, a very quick

and cost effective way to get the right feedback from would-be customers.

On the other hand, integrating interactivity offered by SMS service within television programs

outside peak hours can lead to significant profits coming from the viewers who pay while

sending messages from their mobile phones, since they want to have fun, personalize products,

get access to games and socialize.

Digital interactive television services developed unevenly during the last year. In some countries,

their diffusion rate went beyond 90% by the end of June 2007. Most of the EU members handed

in National

Plans to the European Commission, shifting from analogical broadcasting to the digital one,

having the year 2012 as deadline, some others established terms later than 2012. And still, there

24
are also member states which have not yet handed in the National Plan concerning the shift from

analogical to digital television to the European Commission.

“U” is the first interactive television in Romania and, besides Unite – clubbing and events brand

– and www.utv.ro it is part of the New Trend Media Company, belonging to the UTI Group. “U”

first broadcast in Romania on the 9th of April 2005. The strong points of the U brand are:

attitude, quality music – Romanian and international hits, dynamism, innovation, and, last but

not least, “U” stands for fun. The target audiences of this channel are the 15-29, up to 35 year

olds.

Smart advertisements on the web

In order to back a marketing system based on Internet, the pay-per-click network (PPC) was

brought into play, and the one developed by Google is a good case in point. The text models on

the right side of the main slide of the application entail two changes in the traditional relationship

between editors

and advertisers: the latter pay only when advertisements are on and the viewers click on them;

the paid research networks draw a distinction between advertisers and editors (advertisers no

longer get space on the editor’s site in exchange of payment for key words).

For a better knowledge of its public the advertisements on Internet (based on software) can

contain further information on: the targeted public, the money advertising companies are willing

to spend to get to that audience rate (including the cost of each click), which sites are accepted

and which ones are banned etc.

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 PUSH Digital Marketing

Mobile marketing

On a well-developed market, operators have to face the pressure of finding new opportunities for

earnings drift, so mobile marketing could be the very solution.

Mobile services with their unique capabilities and opportunities were exclusively “bundled”

within the mobile operators’ technology network, a “walled garden” controlled by the mobile

operators with limited access provided to others. The mobile marketing created the fertile ground

for existing to new industry players like mobile application providers, aggregators, and enablers.

The discrete application providers and application solution providers (also known as “mobile

ASPs”) are offering exciting and novel technology for a wide array of mobile initiatives and

mobile management systems. The aggregators are providing single-point connectivity with all

the different mobile operator networks.

The enablers are providing foundation technology, processes, regulations and related support to

the value activities within each sphere. With the controlled and managed opening of the mobile

26
operator’s walled garden, traditional brands, content owners, and marketing agencies are now

able to use mobile networks for direct customer engagement (http://mmaglobal.com)

Since entertainment and advertising business are overlapping more and more, the idea that brand

marketing should be budgeted for purchasing mobile content has gained ground lately (Roxana

One a, www.comunic.ro). Advertisers have to find new ways of making their brands and

messages known to a public whose expectations are higher and higher, thanks to a boost in

information. The old-fashioned pattern, which meant direct coverage to its customers no longer,

seems efficient, while advertising agencies are interested in entertaining their customers with a

challenging content. At the same time, mobile services providers are, more often than not,

concerned with drawing into more and more customers, all paying for their content. It will all be

each brand’s concern to create catchy advertising content which subscribers would like to save,

send to friends all over again, turning it into something vital.

Mobile marketing offers an important means for building up cooperation relationships, since

specialists in mobile marketing use SMS text messages and MMS multimedia messages to get to

their users by means of one of the most personal devices, namely the mobile phone.

For almost a century, phones and voice transmissions were connected to networks. Nowadays,

service providers can convert voice calls in small collections of data, which are later sent on the

Internet, offering the same phone experience as traditional phone operators did, with no further

investment in infrastructure. In order to carry on his work, such a provider only needs good

computers, ran by specialized software. Given the circumstances, the Internet will be our new

phone, setting up a vast field for further business.

One can notice this trend both among the newcomers on the market, but also among the already

existing companies, which add voice options to computer devices. America Online, Apple,

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Google, Microsoft or Yahoo has added voice services to instant messaging users. E-Bay

purchased the pioneer in IP-Skype phoning for 2, 6 billion dollars. More than that, Skype, whose

technology allows vocal calls for prices representing a small fraction of traditional services costs,

has also added video calls to its services.

Mobile phones have endless uses within the current socio-economical background, thanks to

their technical advantages, while their providers incorporate as many entertainments, commercial

and media options in their devices. Here are some of the main aspects defining the various uses

of mobile phones

Informing and entertaining

The best thing about mobile marketing is that, unlike mail and e-mail, people tend to read

messages

from their mobile phones: 94% of messages are usually read, within an hour from their

receiving, according to WIN, a mobile phone messaging service provider.

One of the first ways in which mobile phones are used by the specialists in marketing is with the

“ambush” type of advertising, street advertising, since the users passing by posters in the street,

for example, will get messages on certain events and advertising activities. Mobile phones have

also started to be a means of entertainment generated by the specialists in advertising.

Nowadays, advertising campaigns on mobile phones have only come into existence, usually

asking their users to send a text message to a number code. In exchange for that, they get

information on products, free content or the chance of winning some prizes.

Since advertising campaigns are interested in exploiting the new social and technological

phenomena

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to its full, such as blogging and in getting further images for new marketing patterns which

mobile phone users would welcome, provided they were promoted according to their ability of

understanding, interactivity seems to be the most significant element.

The leader in technology, Japan, whose 90% of the population owns a mobile phone, has got

used to the technology based on the so-called QR (“quick response”). They are very similar to

code bars, only that they are square and contain much more information (www.imagoo.ro).

These codes connect them to web sites, just like an underground chart, so that the user does not

have to type the web site on the tiny keyboard of his mobile phone.

Commercial communication

Mobile phones have already been widely used by companies for commercial communication or

advertising mechanisms. The latter encourage users to send SMS messages or offer call tones

and music in exchange of sending through SMS the codes from various product packs (coffee,

chocolate, toothpaste). Campaigns are sometimes integrated, besides advertising on classical

screens, in a well-thought system encouraging the use and usage of 3G mobile phones.

Consequently, mobile phones should become a means of showing loyalty to their clients at a

larger scale, a means of buying and paying (www.mobiledigit.ro).

The fidelity card, given out when subscribing to a loyalty program can easily be replaced by the

mobile phone, with great benefits for both company and user. The necessary information about

the buyer’s behavior and the things purchased is collected at each card use.

After receiving a code on the mobile phone, the customer can purchase things, which

presupposes code identification and validation, performed by a central data base. As a result of

his purchasing, the user can get fidelity points, which allow him further advantages.

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Mobile ticketing is a new form of electronic commerce, which allows customers to buy, book,

get and check tickets no matter the time or the place. By mobile ticketing, mobile phones become

an access ticket. Potential applications include: events (concert, theatre, and museum), transport,

gym access etc.

When the customer books a cinema ticket through on-line ticketing services, it is transmitted to

him as a 2D code on the mobile phone, and it can be later used as entry ticket. The code is

presented at the entry check point and authenticated by means of a special device.

Mobile payment represents that type of payment by using the mobile phone at the outlet store

instead of credit or debit cards. This system allows for flexibility and easy use. The user goes

shopping and he is going to pay by means of a mobile phone. The bank gives the customer a

personalized code for acknowledgment beforehand, which will then be scanned, while the user’s

personal information is transferred to the bank to allow for the payment.

Electronic vouchers can be used for special offers, catchy promotions, discounts or other such

things a printed voucher stands for. Electronic vouchers are distributed through Internet, e-mail

or SMS and can be printed at home or just saved on the phone. Vouchers can contain a validity

term for advertising programs set in time. The customer in question gets an SMS containing the

2D code with information on discounts, which stands for a virtual voucher for the shops under

promotion.

Partnership with mobile television

The emphasis placed on communication shows that mobile content industry and the broadcasting

one are well aware of the importance of new platforms, such as mobile television and IPTV.

Content makers and the ones that broadcast it need to find out how to better “sell” their product.

30
Both industries consented to the idea that a content especially made for mobiles is to be

preferred. South Cornea and Japan are among the first countries which adopted mobile

television, but the European and North American markets are not far behind

(http://news.softpedia.com).

Since there is an increase in both number and type of mobile television devices, the content

industry needs a simplified technique of format adjustment more and more. Just as television

advertisement and music videos use techniques different from those used by the cinema, films

and video productions are produced in different versions for the various types of mobile devices.

The content has to be divided according to the device and produced into a new version.

Text messaging marketing

Text messaging is an efficient means for television, since it promotes interactivity and creates

addiction. Thus, text messaging campaigns gain more and more ground: they are used in live

sports events, films, breaking news etc. Such campaigns are backed by marketing agencies since,

on condition they are well made, they give television channels key elements concerning the

targeted audience, vital for the already adopted strategies. Moreover, these campaigns are

important for the wireless operators, since respondents pay a small attendance fee to take part in

such campaigns, while operators get a high percentage of that fee (Roxana One,

www.comunic.ro).

Specialists in mobile marketing and text messaging companies claim that the profits of financial

supporters of such a company depend on the way they are put into practice, which means that its

local supporters will not get back their investment so easily, as compared to famous networks

which have a more numerous audience. This drawback can be fought back by identifying some

sponsors for text messaging companies, which would lead to further profits.

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In this field one can also notice the expansion in the services provided through the advent and

more frequent use of multimedia messaging, especially for video content broadcasting. Since

messaging campaigns become more and more popular, their supporters believe that this

expansion to the premium range can become an efficient marketing tool and a potential profit

generator to the operator and providers of mobile content.

Multimedia messaging

This modern form of transmission of information allows offering services such as entertainment,

news, sports events, video games, while also being a personalized marketing tool with immediate

response, which facilitates communication with its customers. Based on the infrastructure of

mobile phoning operators, multimedia messaging gets a positive feedback from its users, even if

problems such as service knowledge, education, prices etc. can still arise.

Even if the service is appreciated, technical problems can still come out, meaning that a single

format for marketing messages which can be sent to all its users cannot be yet developed, due to

performance differences between mobile phones, since only some of them can receive both SMS

and video messages. Moreover, many of those having phones with MMS options can’t grade

their phones to get MMS messages or simply don’t want to access such messages. For this very

reason, one cannot be certain that the messages created and transmitted by the marketers reach

their users in a full format.

The broadcasting of recent news (RSS)

RSS technology (Really Simple Syndication) represents a format especially created to broadcast

the latest news or reports. This means automatically following the changes within a site, its

access being unnecessary if wanting to check if new information was introduced. Nowadays,

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there are reading applications regarding flows of news in RSS format which let users know, at a

specific time, if there is new information or news on the sites they selected beforehand. Thus,

users can choose the sites they want to watch, and if those sites have the ESS option on (more

and more sites are adopting it), by means of a small program, known as “aggregator”, users can

be alerted whenever their favorite sites come up with something new. RSS technology brings

forth a radical change in the way people can access information. If, so far, the user had to access

information directly (search for a certain site and surf till he got the information needed), RSS

technology allows for rapid spread of that news which is relevant and up-to-date. Some believe

that RSS is the future trend in accessing information, since it has already raised a lot of questions

concerning the future of traditional mass media. This phenomenon has started to be widely

accepted in Romania also, since newspapers such as Ade PC or CHIP already use flows of news

in an RSS format. News portals in RSS format have started to be used such as the one designed

on the web site http://rss.mioritic.ro/, where almost 600 flows of news in RSS format are

available from Romanian sites, either info pages, newspapers, personal diaries, clubs, forums or

other such online sources.

* As the market is under constant development, the business practices, under development they

will help remove some obstacles, while others might need special measures from industrial

companies and legislation in order to give their users, content providers and hardware industry

some legal certitude.

The discovery and adoption of innovative methods in doing business is more and more obvious

in Romania, its market is rapidly catching up with the lagging behind from a technological point

of view, but success is finally assured thanks to the customers’ desire to purchase such new

devices or through such new devices.

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 DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY MIX

Every business needs 3 things:

1. Lead Generation

2. Credibility and Brand Awareness

3. Customer Communication

This diagram shows you how to align some of the most common internet marketing strategies to

match your most strategic business priority.

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 PRIORITY ONLINE MARKETING TACTICS

 Pay Per Click

It is important to choose the tactic with the highest priority. If want to generate leads quickly, the

tactic to use is Google pay per click. Looking at the lead generation column in red, you see that

Google pay per click is the best choice to generate leads. This is because, in most cases, we can

get a result on Google within 24 hours using paid search.

 Organic Optimization

Once we have learned the best keywords for Google from pay per click, we can then use the

keywords to search engine optimize your website. Search engine optimization helps you create

an asset of your website and as you get higher rankings you rely less on paying Google for your

advertising.

 Content Marketing

When it comes to content marketing, this is where we write articles and add them to your

website; they are how-to articles and informational articles. This is a powerful way of marketing

and has many benefits. Content marketing is definitely the best way to be seen as a thought

leader and delivers more relevant content for search engines to index.

 Social Media

We can see that social media also provides a great way to build brand as well as communicating

with customers/prospects. Social media can include blogging, video syndication, participating in

online conversations and much more.

 Other Considerations

Everyday new and amazing tools and technologies are introduced to help business leverage the

Internet. On the rise is Mobile Marketing, for example. Application of on-site conversion and

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 measurement tools can help productivity, too. Enhance your site with Live Chat and Click-to-call

features. Users love the instant interaction and sales will show it.

 Align your Marketing and Grow

So use this diagram to help you prioritize the use of your digital marketing budget. Share this

with your management team to show the type of tactics that you can use to help the support your

business objectives for the year. As experienced Internet Marketing Consultants, our team can

help you minimize trial & error by customizing your strategic mix based on your competitive

landscape and budget. Give us a ring for a free phone consolation.

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 7 p’s OF DIGITAL MARKETING

The four P's - Product, Price, Place and Promotion have long been associated with marketing,

but things have changed on the Internet. So along with a change in the nature of the four P’s

there are three new P’s which are relevant to the digital marketer: Presentation, Processes and

Personalization.

1. Product:

Product on the Internet usually changes form online, and the user experiences it

electronically, in the form of text, images and multimedia. Physical goods are usually

presented in the form of a detailed online catalogue that the customer can browse

through. Technology allows the user to virtually touch and feel the product on the

Internet - rotate it, zoom in or zoom out and even visualize the product in different

configurations and combination. Content and software are two avatars of digitized
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 products that can be even distributed over the Internet. On the Internet, E-marketing will

be based more on the product qualities rather than on the price. Every company will be

able to bring down the cost of its products and hence competition will not be on price. It

will rather be on the uniqueness of the product. To be able to attract the customers and

retain them, the company will have to provide nouvelle and distinct products that forces

the net users to purchase and come back for more.

2. Price:

Price has been drastically changed over the Internet. It lets the buyer decides the price.

Also it gives the buyers information about multiple sellers selling the same product. It

leads to best possible deal for the buyers in terms of price. Pricing is dynamic over the

Internet.

3. Place:

Place revolves around setting up of a marketing channel to reach the customer. Internet

serves as a direct marketing channel that allows the producer to reach the customer

directly. The elimination of the intermediate channel allows the producer to pass the

reduced distribution cost to the customer in the form of discounts.

4. Promotion:

Promotion is extremely necessary to entice the customer to its website, as there are

currently more than one billion web pages. Promoting a website includes both online and

offline strategies. Online strategies include search engine optimization, banner ads,

multiple points of entry, viral marketing, strategic partnership and affiliate marketing.

Presently, the cyberspace is already cluttered with thousands of sites probably selling

similar products. For the customers to know of the Company’s existence and to garner

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 information on the kind of products or services that the company is offering, promotion

has to be carried out. There can be traded links or banner advertisements for the same.

Also the traditional mediums like print, outdoor advertising and television can be used to

spread awareness.

5. Presentation:

The presentation of the online business needs to have an easy to use navigation. The look

and the feel of the web site should be based on corporate logos and standards. About 80%

of the people read only 20% of the web page. Therefore, the web page should not be

cluttered with a lot of information. Also, simple but powerful navigational aids on all web

pages like search engines make it easy for customer to find their way around.

6. Processes:

Customer supports needs to be integrated into the online web site. A sales service that

will be able to answer the questions of their customers fast and in a reliable manner is

necessary. To further enhance after sales service, customers must be able to find out

about their order status after the sale has been made.

7. Personalization:

Using the latest software it is possible to customize the entire web site for every single

user, without any additional costs. The mass customization allows the company to create

web pages products and services that suit the requirement of the user. A customized web

page does not only include the preferred layout of the customer but also a pre selection of

goods the customer may be interested in

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 UNDERSTANDING THE INTERNET CUSTOMER

Now to be able to use the seven P’s effectively in order to achieve the predefined goals of any

organization it is imperative to understand the customers. Customization will only be truly

effective if we understand our customers and their true needs. Before adapting marketing

practices to the Internet, the marketer needs to understand the characteristics of the online

customers. The Net users can be classified into five categories depending upon their intention of

using the Internet. The five categories of users are:

 Directed Information Seekers: They require specific, timely and relevant information about the

products and services being offered.

 Undirected Information Seekers: These users require something interesting and useful.

Something that can give them an edge, advantage, insight or even a pleasant surprise.

 Bargain Hunters: They are of two kinds: One who look for free items on the internet and other

who are seeking better deals, higher discounts etc.

 Entertainment Seekers: They see the Web as an entertainment medium of vast breath and

potential and want to explore the medium before the mass gets there.

 Directed Buyers: They want to buy something - now. They are sure what they require and just

log on to the Web to purchase the item.

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 BRAND BUILDING ON INTERNET

For the Company on the cyberspace, their web site is

their most important brand. The seven P’s of internet

marketing mentioned earlier not only have to try and

make business successful but also do brand building in the process.

 Product and service customization

Companies that have powerful brand awareness on the web all have sites that help

consumers do something – whether it’s configuring a computer system (www.dell.com) online

or offering personalized services like suburban railway pass in Mumbai (www.rediff.com).

Consumer demand and expectations are forecast to drive made-to-order or customized products

with rapidly shrinking lead times. Products are configured, as customers want them to be and

provide a high level of reliability, excellent quality, and longer life spans. For e.g. ‘Dell’

computer (www.dell.com) has become a leading company in selling computers because of the

customization facility it provided on its site.

 The Evolving Risk Profiles

The on-line customer is not a fickle customer, but he is a risky proposition nevertheless. This is

because all his online experience will influence consumer perceptions about the brand. If a

consumer buys a product from a retailer and is involved in an unhappy purchase experience at

the store, he will punish the store. But if the same experience were to occur to him at the

company’s web site, the consequences would be disastrous for the company if he were to share

41
 his experience though different user communities using a combination of chat rooms and

electronic mails.

 The Evolving Supply Chain

The transformation being brought about the Web revolution is not limited to just the consumer.

The last few years have seen a flurry of suggested business models for doing business in the

Internet era. Will the Internet era signal the death of the retailer? Or will a new intermediary

come into existence? Technological innovations have made possible two interesting

developments - the Choice board system 2 and the Vertical Portal. Choice boards are essentially

design tools and conduits of information, companies that produce the products need not control

them. Dell uses a Choice board system to sell its computers but there are others like Point.com

that uses a Choice board to help customers research and buy wireless phones and accessories.

The market information that a Choice board collects about customer preferences is absolutely

enormous and if the manufacturing company does not control it, the site offering the Choice

board can emerge as a powerful intermediary. Vertical portals armed with sophisticated search

engines, which specialize in a particular industry or product category, and provide customized

information and promote online community development are the next emergent intermediaries.

The sophistication and range of information collected on customer preferences will drive

emergent business models. The Web will thus facilitate the transformation of the companies

form transaction supporters to customer relationship managers.

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 CRICITAL SUCCESS FACTOR OF DIGITAL MARKETING

Having observed the evolving paradigms of business in the Internet era, there are five critical

success factors that the Digital Marketer has to keep in mind.

 Attracting the Right Customer

Attracting the Right Customer is the first crucial step. Rising digital penetration would mean that

the number of customer visiting particular sites would inevitably go up. While the number of

eyeballs or page views has so far been conveniently

used as a satisfactory measure by most web sites, it

would be foolish to cater to the whole spectrum of

digital visitors. Content has to be very target

specific. The digital company has to select its target

segment by finding out which section of customers

are the most profitable in terms of revenue transactions and who are the customers who generate

the maximum number of referrals. Here again it is important to note that the majority of online

customers are not seeking the lowest price. Rather they are seeking convenience above

everything else. The power of customer referrals has never been so enormous, since word of the

mouse spreads faster than word of the mouth. E-Bay attracts more than half of its customers

through referrals. Not only do referred customers cost less to acquire than those brought in by

advertising or other marketing tools, they also cost less to support since they use their friends

who referred them for advice rather than using the companies’ own technical desk.

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 Delivering Content Value

Delivering Content Value to engage the user’s interest is the critical importance in retaining

customer participation. This is because content

serves as a powerful differentiator. Content would

include Product enhancements (Software patches

for glitches), personalized interactions (through

customized navigation paths as seen on the web

sites of GM and Toyota) and Problem Resolution

(updates of delivery schedules and e-mail responses). Integral to the concept of delivering proper

content value is innovation. For e.g. www.campareindia.com

 Ensuring E-Loyalty

Ensuring E-Loyalty is vital to the success of any online venture. This is because acquiring

customers on the Internet is enormously expensive and unless those customers stick round and

make lots of repeat purchases over the years, profits will remain elusive. Contrary to the general

view that Web customers are notoriously fickle, they in fact follow the old rules of customer

loyalty. Web customers stick to sites that they trust and with time consolidate their purchases

with one primary supplier to the extent that purchasing from the supplier’s site becomes part of

their daily routine. The issue of trust is integral to the issues of privacy and security. Companies

like Amazon.com, which command amazing levels of consumer trust, have used a variety of

encryption tools and simple ethical decisions like not accepting money for publishers for

independent book reviews to maintain the trust of its customers.

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 E-Learning to facilitate personalized interactions

E-Learning to facilitate personalized interactions with customers has been the biggest

contribution of the Web to the marketing strategists. Customers in traditional bricks and mortar

stores leave no record of their behavior unless they buy something. In the digital market place,

however technology has made the entire shopping experience a transparent process. For

example, if the customer exits the web-site when the price screen appears, he is a price sensitive

consumer. Such minute tracking of customer behavior has major implications for the world of

advertising. The Internet may soon be used as a test bed for testing prototypes of marketing and

advertising campaigns. By monitoring pages selected, click through, responses generated, and

other indicators, the company would be able to discover which parts of a prospective campaign

would work, thus reducing the risk of a potential flop. This would make it possible for the

company to modify its product offerings much earlier than usual in the product life cycle.

 Providing Digital value to the evolving consumer through his life cycle

Providing Digital value to the evolving consumer through his life cycle has become possible

because of customized interactions and emerging business models. These models have often

disturbed the traditional status quo and created new rules of business. The sectors where new

business models will emerge or have emerged are the music industry, the financial services

industry, the travel industry, the relating segment and the publishing segment.

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 BENEFITS OF DIGITAL MARKETING

The reason why internet marketing has become so popular is because they provide three major

benefits to potential buyers:

1)Convenience: Customers can order products 24 hours a day wherever they are. They don’t

have to sit in traffic, and a parking space, and walk through countless shops to find and examine

goods.

2) Information: Customers can find reams of comparative information about companies,

products, competitors, and prices without leaving their office or home.

3) Fewer hassles: Customers don’t have to face salespeople or open themselves up to persuasion

and emotional factors; they also

don’t have to wait in line.

Digital marketing also provides a number of benefits to marketers

1) Quick adjustments to market conditions: Companies can quickly add products to their

offering and change prices and descriptions.

2) Lower costs: On-line marketers avoid the expense of maintaining a store and the costs of rent,

insurance, and utilities. They can produce digital catalogs for much less than the cost of printing

and mailing paper catalogs.

3) Relationship building: On-line marketers can dialogue with consumers and learn from them.

46
4) Audience sizing: Marketers can learn how many people visited their on-line site and how

many stopped at particular places on the site. This information can help improve offers and ads.

Clearly, marketers are adding on-line channels to find, reach, communicate, and sell. Internet

marketing has at least five great advantages. .

47
 DIGITAL ADVERTISING

Marketing over

the years more

so recently has

started being

used

interchangeably with advertising. Now since the explosion of the internet; advertising paradigms

have been constantly changing. The first Web advertisement was placed on the Hot Wired web

site in October 1994. AT&T, MCI, Sprint, Volvo, Club Med, ZIMA were the first to try it out

and the Internet advertising has come a long way since then.

What is digital advertising?

Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web for the

expressed purpose of delivering marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online

advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, Rich Media Ads,

Social network advertising, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail

marketing, including e-mail spam. Online video directories for brands are a good example of

interactive advertising. These directories complement television advertising and allow the viewer

to view the commercials of a number of brands. If the advertiser has opted for a response feature,

the viewer may then choose to visit the brand’s website, or interact with the advertiser through

other touch points such as email, chat or phone. Response to brand communication is

instantaneous, and conversion to business is very high. This is because in contrast to

48
conventional forms of interruptive advertising, the viewer has actually chosen to see the

commercial.

(A)Digital Advertising vs. Traditional Advertising

Traditional Advertising Digital Advertising

Traditional Advertising is static. It is dynamic with multimedia - supporting

text and graphics video sound all together.

Space is not a restricting factor Space is a problem, as regards size of the

banners etc.

The proportion of advertising to editorial is A web page would be 91% editorial and

high 9%

sometimes 50:50 Advertising

Does not evoke immediate action Invokes immediate action as you at-least

need

49
 to click on the ad

Response to the action is not immediate First response is immediate as when the

user

clicks, the person is directed to other web

page

with more details

Advertisements are passively received The user has high attention level and

concentration while using the net, and

hence

they notice the add

Advertising does not always target a very This can be very focused

focused audience

Advertisements are omnipresent Advertisements catch users when they are

on

The lookout for something. For example

the

search is for travel on a search engine there

are

ads of travel agents on the net

Difficult to track the exact number of This is quite possible with Internet

people who saw the advertisement. Advertisements

Ads are graphic intensive and avoid copy Both copy and graphics are restricted by

Overload the

50
 banner size specifications

(B)OBJECTIVE OF DIGITAL ADVERTISING

 Advertising: As far as advertising on the Internet goes, all advertisements will serve to attract the

user's attention and draw him to the company, which is advertising. Build brand awareness:

Direct or indirect methods can be used on the websites to build brand awareness of the different

brands of a company. This is where the Internet scores traditional media and methods as

explained below. Stimulate direct action: Visitors to a company's web site should get involved

with the offerings on the site. Valuable customer information can also be captured and tracked

for future marketing initiatives.

51
 Promote its brands: Promotional give - away or contests generate excitement while

simultaneously promoting your brands online, aiding off - line sale. Building a culture around its

brands: This goes along with that company's traditional advertising.

 Surrogate advertising: This is another means of surrogate advertising of the company, where all

forms of traditional advertising fail. Surrogate advertising can be proved to be positive in case of

advertising on the Internet.

(C) FEATURES OF DIGITAL ADVERTISING

Advertising on the Internet has certain unique features that differentiate it from other forms of

advertising. They are as follows:

 Member registration: Member registration is an efficient tool that is used by firms to create their

database. Such a database may be used to design promotional campaigns. Allowing registered

users to participate in various events can follow systems of free registration.

 Online opinion polls: Opinion polls are conducted to obtain the responses from users regarding

the firms' products and services besides including topics of general interest.

52
 Newsletters: Regular newsletters are sent especially to registered users. These contain

information about current updates on the site and activities being performed by the company.

 Contests and sweepstakes: Contests are useful in attracting new users to websites. They may be

for simple things depending on the product or service being advertised. The prizes offered are in

a wide range and usually have the logo of the company and the homepage address displayed

prominently.

 Content: The content of the advertisement can be regularly updated with news regarding the

activities of the firm. A fact-based section showing the manufacturing processes of a company

may also be included. The use of multimedia tools can make this more interactive.

53
 E-cards: Users send free cards via e-mail from the site of the company advertising the product.

The card prominently displays the logo or the baseline of the brand. The cards may be for

different occasions such as birthdays, festivals, birthdays, etc. These cards are used to reinforce

brand identity. Star endorsers of the brand may also be included in the picture postcard themes.

 Downloads: Downloads may include various utilities for the computer such as icons, desktop

patterns, screensavers, themes, etc. Registered users get the opportunity of downloading

software. Charts and other informative articles may also be included.

 Coupons: Coupons are used to promote sales off-line. Sending discount coupons for the products

and services of the company on special occasions can do this.

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 (D)TYPES OF DIGITAL MARKETING

 E-mail advertising: Legitimate Email advertising or E-mail marketing is often known as "option

e-mail advertising" to distinguish it from spam.

 Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is a form of online advertising where advertisers place

campaigns with a potentially large number of small (and large) publishers, whom are only paid

media fees when traffic to the advertiser is garnered, and usually upon a specific measurable

campaign result (a form, a sale, a sign-up, etc).

Today, this is usually accomplished through contracting with an affiliate network.

The online retailer used its program to generate low cost brand exposure and provided at the

same time small websites a way to earn some supplemental income.

55
 Contextual advertising: Many advertising networks display graphical or text-only ads that

correspond to the keywords of an Internet search or to the content of the page on which the ad is

shown. These ads are believed to have a greater chance of attracting a user, because they tend to

share a similar context as the user's search query. For example, a search query for "flowers"

might return an advertisement for a florist's website. Another newer technique is embedding

keyword hyperlinks in an article which are sponsored by an advertiser. When a user follows the

link, they are sent to a sponsor's website.

 Behavioral targeting: In addition to contextual targeting, online advertising can be targeted based

on a user's past click stream. For example, if a user is known to have recently visited a number of

automotive shopping / comparison sites based on click stream analysis enabled by cookies stored

on the user's computer, that user can then be served auto-related ads when they visit other, non-

automotive sites.

 Pay per Click: Search engines place your website on their front page and you pay a set amount

per click-through. Sites like Overture also run bids for certain keywords - the more you bid, the

56
 higher your site appears on the first page of the search results. Properly run, these campaigns can

bring a lot of extra traffic to your website.

 Search Engine Optimization: This is an online advertising service provided by many web media

companies. They will look at your target audience, your competitors and the keywords for your

business and optimize your website content so that it has a much better chance of appearing on

the first page of the search results. You will pay a fee to the consultants for this service. Studies

have shown that many searchers prefer to use the "natural" listings provided by the search

engines, rather than the paid-for listings.

57
 Sponsorships: Website sponsorship can come in two formats; regular sponsorship where the

advertiser has a space to place the logo and company message, and content sponsorship where

the advertiser has limited control and submits their own content to the site as well as having an

advert on the page. These sponsorships will be for fixed periods, and need to be on targeted

websites to reach the right audience.

 Online Directories: The online equivalent of Yellow Pages, or Industry Directories, these give

you basic or enhanced listings on the website. Your details will come up if your sector, location

or company name is searched for. Enhanced listings will allow users to click-through to your

site. Online directory listings are often offered in conjunction with an entry in the printed version

of the directory.

 Banner Ads: Banner advertising was the first kind of advertising ever done on the net. A banner

can highlight your product/service/offer and by clicking on it the user will be taken to your

website, where you can create a suitable landing page to provide his further information. Banner

spaces are usually sold by impressions, or banner views, but it is sometimes sold by click-thru,

when you pay only when the user clicks on the banner. Usually horizontal bars across the top of

a web page, they offer color, graphics and often animation, together with the ability to click

through to the advertiser's own website.

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 Pop-up Ads: These are the small windows that appear when you first get onto a website. Pop-ups

appear on your screen in full, pop-downs appear on the bar at the bottom of your screen and you

have to open them to get rid of them.

 Interstitial Adverts: These adverts sometimes referred to as Bridge Adverts, pop up as you move

between pages on a site. You have no choice as to whether you view them or not, although you

can close them down.

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 Floating Ads: These ads appear when you first go to a webpage, and they "float" over the page

for five to 30 seconds. While they are on the screen, they obscure your view of the page you are

trying to read, and they often block mouse input as well. These ads appear each time that page is

refreshed. Floating ads are popular for several reasons:

 They grab the viewer's attention and cannot be ignored.

 They are animated.

 They have audio/video content like TV ads

 They can take up the entire screen, therefore from a branding standpoint, they are much more

powerful than a banner ad or a sidebar ad

 They have a high click-through rate of about 3 percent

However, many users get highly irritated because of these ads.

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 Unit cast Ads:A uncast ad is basically a TV commercial that runs in the browser window. It has

enriched audio/video content. The ads can last anywhere from 10 to 30seconds. These ads have

similar branding power as a TV commercial. However, an uncast ad offers something that TV

ads cannot -- the ability to click on the ad for more information. These ads are getting very

effective, as the average click-through rate is 5%.

 Takeover Ads: Viewers visiting the website will see a large ad when they first come, and then

the continuity is maintained by reiterating the same message throughout the site in the form of

banners, side bars or buttons. The approach works very well for branding because the brand is

visible to viewers throughout the visit to the site. Click-through rates are also high.

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 Consequences

Combinations of these technologies are leading to a complete democratization of media.

Individuals find themselves with the same possibilities as mayor newspapers, groups start

Weblogs that compete with global content distributors, and online radio stations emerge. The

cost of broadcasting has never been so low. Everybody with a PC and an Internet connection can

not only access all traditional media from all over the world, but also the micro-content added to

the media landscape by individuals. Millions of people have evolved from being mere media

consumers to being media producers as well.

What is User Generated Content?

User Generated Content (UGC), also known as consumer-generated media (CGM), refers to any

material created and uploaded to the Internet by non-media professionals, whether it’s a

comment left on Amazon.com, a professional-quality video uploaded to YouTube, or a student’s

profile on Face book. UGC has been around in one form or another since the earliest days of the

Internet itself. But in the past five years, thanks to the growing availability of high-speed Internet

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access and search technology, it has become one of the dominant forms of global media. It is

currently one of the fastest growing forms of content on the Internet.

What is Social Media?

The promise of UGC is now being hyper-realized with social media. Sites like MySpace,

Face book, and You-Tube represent the convergence of user commentary with video, photos, and

music sharing, all presented in a simple, user-friendly format, allowing participation on a mass

scale.

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 MARKET RESEARCH

Purpose and scope of study

Advertisers are expected to spend Rs. 22,500 million in digital advertising in the year 2009 third

only to TV and Print ads, which is around 5257% more than that in the year 2004, compound

percentage increase of 124% over the last 5 years. This is the new age of advertising.

It is true that people have started realizing that internet can serve as a one stop point for all their

needs. Be it communication, entertainment, shopping, information search, internet serves as a

panacea for all their requirements. This has led 70% of the ever users to glue themselves to the

Internet and access it on a regular basis. This is an opportunity for advertisers to exploit this

revolution. But, is it the end of traditional advertising? Is digital advertising effective and

efficient compared to the traditional form?? Does it fulfill the basic objectives of advertising

(create awareness, to generate sales, build positive image, etc…)???

The problem is that, volumes of consumers are online every day for their personal work, but do

they notice the ads, banners etc. displayed on that webpage, most important what is their

recall/remembrance value. What about the reach of online advertising, is it effective across over

all target groups? We have trusted traditional advertising all these years and it’s a proven

medium that fulfills all the objectives of advertising, can one have the same trust for online

advertising…

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SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social media marketing:

The influence of traditional media and marketing have over consumer perception is waning as

people migrate to the variety of social media technologies for entertainment and to share

information with each other. But these social media outlets are more than another channel

through which to deliver messages to the marketplace. Companies like Dell, Microsoft, Nikon

and Nintendo are successfully using social media and marketing strategies to understand and

engage their audiences more deeply – with demonstrable business results. Social media is

making an impact on all aspects of business communications today. Reliance is the latest

additions to Social Media Marketing.

In 2006, social media formats like blogs, photo sites and video sites crossed the threshold from

techno-curiosity to become a bona fide societal trend. Consumers by the millions have embraced

these powerful communication tools to post an opinion, share an experience, and join the online

conversation. These conversations affected many companies, some positively and some

negatively, and raised the awareness of the power social media has to influence business results.

Now we are in an era where companies must take action. The reach and influence of social

media is only going to grow.

The Social Web’s New Communication Forms Draw More Users

Communications has always been the fundamental value of the internet to consumers. Back in

the net’s early days, email was the “killer app” that made the Web a “must-have” and continues

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to be a mainstay of the online experience. Communication activities split the lion’s share of

consumers’ online time with content, and far outstrip commerce and entertainment.

Technology-Powered Communications Accelerate Word of Mouth

From the earliest UseNet groups to today’s hot video sharing and social network sites, each new

innovation has increased consumers’ reach and influence.

 Email was first practical application of the Internet for most people and it was the first word

of mouth accelerator as it enabled people to connect with family and friends instantly,

frequently and at little cost.

 Usenet groups and discussion boards made it easy for people to find others with similar

interests and consumers learned that the Internet freed them from the limit of geography and

personal connections. The influence of word of mouth expanded rapidly within the severtical

niches.

 Consumer review sites used the discussion board format, but focused discussions around

specific products, such as books at Amazon.com. Consumers embraced the idea of reading

book reviews written by other readers and not relying on professional reviewers’ opinions to

decide whether to pick up the latest bestseller.

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 Blogs freed consumers from the limited membership of discussion boards. Blog sites like

Blogger made it simple for an average Web user to post his or her opinions to the world

.Armed with a browser, basic typing skills, and a few straightforward Web commands,

anyone can publish their thoughts, rants, or daily journal in a few minutes a day.

 Consumers soon learned their conversations aren’t limited to words. Digital photography’s

boom introduced people to sharing their creations, first via email then via first-generation

photo-sharing sites like photobucket.com.

 Digital camcorders and audio/video editing programs like Apple’s I Movie became

affordable and user-friendly versions for home users. People were no longer limited to text or

still photos, and consumer-created video site YouTube quickly bloomed to six million users

watching 40 million videos per month.

 Social networks like MySpace skew more toward the social end of the social-to-content

continuum. They combine a selection of social media tools like blogs, photo sharing, etc .to

give the author a platform for expressing their passions and preferences, while at the same

time serving as a central communication hub for a group of friends. Early on, bands would

build online fan communities to promote their music; now brands like Burger King, Toyota,

Adidas, and Cingular create circles of “friends” that become brand building hubs.

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Social Media Transforms Communications into Content

These new tools blur the line between communications and content. Blogs are a natural example

of how content and communications blend into a single experience. Each entry (or “post” as it is

known) is a short article, essay, news item, etc. But bloggers mean to stimulate feedback and

conversation, as readers add comments and links to other blogs to make a point. This interplay

results in a dialogue of different perspectives and opinions. Sometimes the resulting

communications can be so influential they end up taking the story in an entirely new direction.

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Social Media Begins to Impact Brands

One of the most exciting and powerful forms of social media is the video. Videos are the

ultimate expression of creativity since they can “mash up” (all in one) elements and messages

from audio, video, blogs, company-created messages and media coverage.

Social media sites like Orkut, MySpace and Face book are usually seen just as places where

people go to connect with friends and find others with similar interests.

The Other Side of Influence

Often the discussions can be positive about your products and the experiences consumers have

had with you, but sometimes they can be very negative. On the one hand, this increases the

number of potential critics and they don’t need to have impressive qualifications or credentials to

be influential.

On the other hand, all of these negative opinions are public and searchable, allowing companies

to prepare a response before a story gets wide coverage. Bloggers at top companies agree that

learning about and dealing with negative stories as they emerge is smarter than waiting until they

hit the newspapers or evening news shows. E.g. Dell

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 Driving Business Results with Social Media

There are four primary ways companies can use social media to drive business results:

 By Monitoring social media, companies can track how their messages are being interpreted in

the marketplace to understand how the company is perceived and to learn how any responses or

message changes should be approached. This will also provide valuable insight into potential

threats from competitors, changing industry trends, and customer preferences.

 Monitoring also enables companies to track the evolution of known trends in order to quantify

the ones gaining the most attention and acceptance within their target audience.

 Measurement provides the quantitative reporting data on the specific issues and buzz driving

media coverage making it easy to demonstrate the impact of PR and marketing efforts.

 But social media also calls for a Discovery approach, in which companies learn what influences

are driving the internet discussions in the marketplace. From this, companies can measure the

growth of many.

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 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

 To assess reach of digital marketing over traditional marketing.

 To find the effectiveness of digital advertising.

 To compare the trust level of traditional advertising and digital advertising (consumers

point of view)

 To find the reliability of digital advertising (recall and remembrance)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research design

This is a descriptive research as it will clarify the doubts about online advertising.

It would give us a clear picture on the effectiveness and reliability of online advertising

compared to the traditional form of advertising.

Data collection

Secondary data: Online reports related to advertising

Primary data: Questionnaire, Personal Interview, Interview with Marketing Professional

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Sample universe

Basis of sampling:

 Sample should be a user of internet or should have knowledge about internet

 50 numbers in all

Sampling Technique:

Judgmental Non Probability sampling can be used to select the individual units for better

productivity of the questionnaire. A well educated person may be able to reason out the questions

in the better way.

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 DATA ANALYSIS {BASED ON QUESTIONNAIRE}

Q.1) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT DIGITAL MARKETING?

Attitude towards Advertisements

One can clearly make out that consumers perceive advertisements as a source of information and

awareness, be it general or towards TV commercials.

Attitude towards Attitude towards Attitude towards

AttitudeAds,towards
Ads, Irritating, 3%, Annoying, 3%,Ads
Ads, Waste of time,
3% 3% 3%, 3%

Attitude towards
Attitude towards Ads, Informative,
Informative
Ads, Creates 35%, 35%
awareness, 31%, Entetaining
31% Creates awareness
Irritating
Attitude towards
Ads, Entetaining, Annoying
25%, 25% Waste of time

Not many people find advertisements to be irritating, annoying or waste of time. This clearly

shows a positive attitude toward them and hence is a good indication for marketers

As from above survey only 35% think digital marketing as informative purpose while only 3%

feel as annoying and irritating.

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Q.2) DO YOU WATCH THE TV/RADIO COMMERCIALS DURING COMMERCIAL

BREAK?

Attitude towards TV/Radio Ads

Attitude
towards Attitude towards
TV/Radio Ads, TV/Radio Ads, Attitude towards
Annoying, 5%, Waste of time, TV/Radio Ads,
Informative
5% 11%, 11% Informative, 30%,
Attitude Entertaining
30%
towards
Creates awareness
TV/Radio
Ads, Irritating
Irritating,
Annoying
11%, 11%
Waste of time
Attitude
towards
TV/Radio Attitude
Ads, towards
Creates TV/Radio Ads,
awareness, Entertaining,
19%, 19% 24%, 24%

From above chart and survey done around 30% watch for informative purpose other 11% just

watch to waste time.

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Q.3) WHICH MODE OF ADVERTISING INFLUENCES YOU TO BUY/SUGGEST

PRODUCT?

Influencers behind Decision Making

Influencers influence the decision making process of a potential consumer. Influencers can be

advertisements, friends, relatives, third party or it can be self-motivated also.

In Mumbai (as the target market is Mumbai) we can infer that friends and relatives are the major

influencers behind decision making.

Influencers, Social
Influencers Magazines and newspaper
Media-
Blogs,Forums,Socia Influencers,
Magazines and
Influencers, Online l networking sites, newspaper, 17%, Friends and relatives
advertisement, 6%, 8%, 8%
17%
6%

TV Commercial

Online advertisement

Influencers, TV Influencers, Friends

Commercial, 29%, Social
and relatives, Media-
40%,
29% 40%Blogs,Forums,Social networking
sites

As above seen consumer are more influence by friends and relative of 40%

Where online advertisement is only 6% as survey from different consumer is from friends and

relative.

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 Q.4) WHICH MODE OF ADVERTISMENT WOULD YOU PREFER?

Consumer preference of advertising

Preference, Online
Ads: Banners, Preference
Email, 17%, 17%
Preference,
OOH: Banners,
Preference, TV
Posters, 18%,
Commercials, 34%,
TV Commercials
18%
34%
Print Ads:
Newspaper,Magazines
Preference, Print OOH: Banners, Posters
Ads:
Newspaper,Magazi
nes, 31%, 31% Online Ads: Banners, Email

Again, one can easily make out that traditional form of advertising has an edge over internet

advertising in terms of consumer preference mode of advertising. Traditional mode got over 31%

preferences than that of internet advertising which is a huge margin. The reason for this is same

as that of influencer, i.e. cultural attitude of consumers towards advertising.

Consumers would prefer to check out ATL elements in case there is a need i.e. information

search and take their decision in terms of purchasing.

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Q.5) WHICH MODE OF ADVERTISING YOU TRUST?

Consumers Trust on advertising

17%
RECOMMENDATION FROM
36% CONSUMER
RADIO

31% TV

16% NEWSPAPER

The above is the chart for trust level of advertisement medium from consumer’s point of view.

Again recommendation and traditional advertisement are a leap ahead of online mobile and BTL

form of advertising. One can say that Indian mentality towards online form of advertising is still

at the baseline and that of mobile is even worse.

Initial Conclusion I

One can confidently conclude that consumers still trust and prefer the traditional form of

advertising than that of online.

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Q.6) I CHANGE CHANNEL DURING COMMERCIAL BREAKS?

I see/check online Ads

I see/check online
Ads, Its depends,
21%

I see/check online
Ads, Never, 79%

Impression of TV Ads (Ad avoidance)

When there were only 2 channels which were “Dodarshan”, consumers didn’t have any choice

but the see the commercial ads in between the programs. That time the impression was very high

and hence was a very effective and efficient medium of promotion.

Now, with more than 250 TV channels, 20 Radio channels, the consumer has lot of options, he

may change the channel, or may ignore it completely.

According to the survey, around.

Of course there are people (21%) who change channels during breaks but not always. In fact,

according to the survey there was no one who change the channel each and every time.

Effectively, 79% of viewers will see the advertisement if the ad is attractive and appealing.

Hence there is a probability of .79 of a consumer viewing the particular advertisement (for

creating awareness and information) on television making it an effective mode of

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communication. As it is, it is the second most trusted mode of communication in the minds of

people.

Q.7) DO YOU SEE/CHECK ONLINE ADS/MAILS WHEN YOU SURF THE

INTERNET?

Impression of Online Ads (Ad avoidance)

I change the channel during Ads

63.%

26%.

11%

Whereas in case of online advertising, around 63% of consumers ignore it completely, i.e. they

don’t even see them and that of 21% see them if they find it to be attractive. Out of that 26%,

11% said that the intension was not to see those ads, but they didn’t have any option but to see

them as they were Interstitial Adverts, Pop – up ads or Floating ads.

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These ads either block the view of the content, or appear right in the middle of the page, or keeps

on floating (moving) around which is considered to be very irritating for the consumers.

Effectively, only 6% saw the online advertisement coz they were of their interest or was

attractive. Some said they liked few ads coz of their interactivity and animation effects. This

might give that flash ads are more appealing.

Trust levels of online advertisements are at the bottom of the list. Hence considering the trust

levels and the effective impression, one can conclude that it is not an effective mode of

communication.

Initial Conclusion II

Even though the reach of internet is much higher than that of other modes, its ability to attract

consumers for awareness creation is very low. Hence comparatively, traditional modes especially

TV commercials are a better option.

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Q.8) YOU USE INTERNET FOR?

Internet usage
Internet usage, Internet usage,
Downloading, 14%,Chatting and Social
14%
Internet usage, E- Networking, 18%,
18% Chatting and Social Networking
Commerce, 1%, 1%
Internet usage, Email
Entertainment,
12%, 12% Information
Entertainment
E-Commerce
Internet usage,
Internet usage, Email, 30%, 30%
Downloading
Information, 25%,
25%

From above survey:

1. Around 18% use internet for chatting like facebook, whatsappetc

2. 30% use email as part of their business

3. It is bad that 1% is doing e commerce

4. 14% consumer only do downloading from internet

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Q.9) YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT?

From the above survey mostly youngster about 18/25 years of age has selected computer with

internet with50%

It was strange that mo one selected books as no one can live without online sites.

Initial Conclusion III

One can easily make out the reliability of digital marketing

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Q.10) DO YOU THINK THAT THE FACE OF ADVT IS TRANSFORMING IN TERMS

OF TECHNOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL IMPACT?

AD.CULTURAL IMPACT?

From the above survey,

Around 60 % have given positive reply on cultural impact such as standard of living, income etc.

Around 40% have given negative answers as they don’t feel any transformation as during survey

i asked people why they are selecting no some said it is not our Indian culture

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 CONCLUSION

Practically it has been proved through the research that online advertising is neither effective nor

reliable as compared to the traditional medium which is Television commercials and print media

i.e. newspapers and magazines. Also, consumers trust the traditional medium more than that of

online and there is a vast difference in their trust levels. Of course, it could be because of the

Indian culture which is different from the western countries that are more into e-commerce and

prefer to buy things online and they trust the internet more as compared to the other forms.

Therefore, Internet advertising is more successful in those countries. All in vain in India, as we

prefer to tangibles the things that we buy. Being collective we go shopping along with family

friends and relatives.

The other side of the coin

In the world of digital advertising, click-through is viewed as the primary measure of advertising

effectiveness. This metric quantifies how marketing communication can be directly linked to

immediate consumer action. But, the metric has certain shortcomings; primary reliance on click-

through does not recognize that in most cases consumers who are exposed to advertising over the

Internet may not currently have a need for the products or services being advertised to them.

Additionally, click-through does not quantify the impact that the exposure of the advertisement

has on a consumer’s attitudes and perceptions of the brand being advertised. Advertisers in the

offline world realize that consumers may not have an immediate need to purchase a product or

service at the moment it is being advertised.

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Realizing this aspect of consumer behavior, a common advertising strategy is to build awareness

of a product and form positive associations (Subliminal effect) between that product and a

consumer over time so that when the need arises to purchase from a given category, a consumer

is more likely to consider that advertiser’s product.

In most cases, users view banner advertisements as a nuisance as they are engaged in other

activities while they are being exposed to the ads. Additionally, we can assume the most people

exposed to an ad do not have the need for the products being advertised at that time. Therefore,

these ads are less likely to be noticed. In order to have an impact on brand metrics, we can

hypothesize that getting a message in front of someone as quickly as possible, before they scroll

away, is of extreme importance. In addition, the presence of a logo, the size of a logo, and the

size of the banner should all have an impact on the banner’s ability to brand.

Applied appropriately, these characteristics may serve as positive reinforcement and therefore

have a positive impact on branding. Conversely, when applied improperly, these ads may serve

to punish viewers thus resulting in little to no impact on brand metrics.

Also, the banner could lay a subliminal effect on the consumer which might drive him to buy the

product or create some association with it. Because it is the subconscious mind that plays the

game here. If one can take target this subconscious mind then definitely it can create a positive

impact on branding.

Last word:

Finally I would like to end by saying that even though the internet has opened up a new avenue

for reaching the end consumer; it is still very much an open field. This is true as there is no fixed

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way or strategy for marketing on the net. It is still very much an arena where ingenuity and

creative thinking very much rule the roost. Thus marketing as usual has not changed, i.e. it is still

the same usual self……. unpredictable but very much required.

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 CASESTUDY

A) Dell Computer

It all started with a post. June 21, 2005

“I just got a new Dell laptop and paid a fortune for the four-year, in-home service. The machine

Is a lemon and the service is a lie. I'm having all kinds of trouble with the hardware:

Overheats, network doesn't work, maxes out on CPU usage. “

And there was no stop to it…it gained momentum…and even more momentum…leading to

dedicated haters

The whole thing started with one post. It was followed another, then there were many. DELL

HELL was started. It ruined the sales of Dell computers. The only reason was, Dell didn’t update

themselves with the internet proceeding. It all happened without the knowhow of dell.

When they realized it was too late.

Dell learned fast, they opened their blog Direct2dell, which answers all the queries and problems

about anything and everything about the dell laptops. It was followed by Dell Idea

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Storm, a collaborative blogging site where one can give their own ideas and discuss about

general technology, computers etc. They blogging was internal as well as external for the

overall development of the company and its image. The whole exercise took 3 years to be back

on track.

Learning

This case study gives us (companies) a good reason to be updated with the happening of the

social networking sites. Blogging and forums are the new influencers of today. They are the

lightening to a fire forest. They form the root of the brand image. One needs to keep a track of

this for a successful outcome.

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B) IPod Touch

Credit Apple’s marketing genius for making its latest generation of iPods, the iPod Touch, and

this season’s likely best-seller in the personal electronics category. Launched on September 5th,

2008 the new generation of iPod incorporates the touch screen seen on the phone, and\ many of

the same display and interactive features including Wi-Fi wireless networking and browsing. It’s

a phone without the phone. With many of phone’s popular features and a starting price of $299,

it’s no wonder the iPod Touch is generating a lot of attention.

Apple highlights the new iPod Wi-Fi and YouTube features, on their website. Not surprisingly,

in September, the iPod Touch product page was listed among the top performers for its use of

social media. Featured are plenty of videos, including the keynote address by Steve Jobs

announcing the iPod Touch release, video introductions to iPod Touch software and a guided

video tour of its features? This video content contributes to

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Apple’s strong Universal Search positioning on Google, while providing a popular source for

video sharing sites.

Apple’s site also includes a “Hot News” section with information on the top downloads in

iTunes and downloadable information for each of Apple’s products. Apple takes no chances

here. RSS feeds are available for iPod and iTunes. Generally, Apple utilizes the social

networking systems and hardware it helped to popularize as a means to demonstrate and further

sell its own products.

Social media is now a vital element when releasing a new product. It can draw customers to your

site, explain and exhibit unique features and benefits, answer questions and generate word-of-

mouth sales. As Apple has demonstrated, video ‘tours’ are particularly effective when

integrated with video press events. The same content can be repurposed for a multitude of

applications. RSS feeds are also a great way to keep customers informed and automatically

updated.

When incorporating social media into your marketing mix, remember a few key lessons that

Apple.com and the iPod Touch have taught us. First, make sure your social media features are

placed intuitively, making them easier to find within your site. If visitors can’t find it, or have to

search too hard, they won’t participate. Second, make sure to accelerate your social media efforts

as your business grows. Customers will expect more from you. If your website expands or is

redesigned, expand and redesign your blogs, discussion boards and social tagging opportunities.

Add video content, podcasts, images and customer feedback elements that will build on (and

improve) your social media content.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

This Information is taken from various website given below:

WEBSITE:

www.google.com

www.wikipedia.com

www.managementparadise.com

www.managementparadise.com

www.bms.co.in

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 ANNEXURE
{QUESTIONNIARE ON DIGITAL MARKETING IN INDIA}

QUESTIONNAIRE NO:

Name: GENDER:___ OCCUPATION:______

1. What do you think about digital marketing?

Informative

Entertaining

Creates awareness

It’s irritating

Annoying

Waste of time

2. For what purpose you watch the TV/Radio commercials during commercial break?

Informative

Entertaining

Creates awareness

It’s irritating

Annoying

Waste of time

3. What mode of advertising influences you to buy/suggest any product?

Magazines and newspaper

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 Friends and relatives

TV Commercial

Online advertisement

Social Media – Blogs, forums, Social Networking sites

4. Which mode of advertising would you prefer? (Rank in order of preference)

TV commercials

Print Ads: Newspaper, Magazines

OOH: Banners, Posters

Online Ads: Banners, Emails

5. Which mode of Advertising would you trust? (Rank in order of preference)

Recommendations from consumers

Radio

TV

Newspapers

6. I change the channel during commercial breaks…

Never

Depends on ad

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7. Do you see/check online ads/mails when you surf the internet?

Sometimes

Depends on ad

Often

8. You use the internet for

Chatting and Social

Email

Information

Entertainment

E-Commerce

Downloading

9. You cannot live without… (Rank in order of preference)

Computer with Internet

TV

Mobile

IPod/ Music Player

Books

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10. Do you think that the face of advertising is transforming in terms of technological and

cultural impact?

Yes

No

{Signature of respondent}

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