English
Introduction
Globalization paired with the fast phased technological evolution has changed the marketing playing field for most businesses. The widespread popularity of social media became a powerful armada for social marketing, which in effect introduced new strategies in order to survive the competition. The Internet in particular is now a strategic place for branding and market segmentation where new breed of consumers are now relying on available online markets to conduct transactions. Globalization has led to several brands increasing their reach to unknown markets. Even medium scale businesses are able to cross borders to get their products and services to consumers beyond their home countries. The paradigm shift in global marketing as the resulting effect of Internet on marketing strategies has meant that marketers need to customize their strategies in order to keep up with the competition. The discussion will highlight the important terminologies and the historical background of Internet utilization in global marketing. It can be assumed that the effect of the Internet in global marketing was to eliminate geographical boundaries of reaching new markets and the emergence of e-commerce.
Definition of Terminologies
Understanding the effects of the Interne and its effect in the global marketing field requires familiarity with the common terms that defines the relationship between the Internet and global marketing.
Internet – a global system of interconnected computer operating with the use of standard protocol suite
ARPANET – referred to as the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network is the first fully operating packet switching network.
Banner Ads – Text and image based advertising used in website advertising and is linked to a third party website landing page.
Packet Switching – A mode of transmitting data where the message is being broken into pieces and being sent independently, which resembles at the computer destination.
Affiliate Marketing – a marketing partnership by website owners, individuals, and companies that aims to increase website traffic paid by cost per acquisition.
Blog – a form of both part journal and part website. It is typically use as news entry to highlight a particular product, services, individuals, and organizations.
(directom.com, 2014)
Historical Breakthroughs
The idea of integrating Internet to global marketing has started from the developments of global networking drawn from the conception of the Internet technology itself. The first concept of interconnected network started in 1962 by J.C.R. Licklider of MIT while discussing the Galactic Network concept (Leiner et. al., 2009). However, the theory of packet switching and the ARPANET was conceived in 1961. Since the development in packet switching, ARPANET was developed, which has evolved to what now referred to as the Internet (Leiner et. al., 2009). It is difficult to point out the main man behind the Internet as the technology itself was not patented to anyone, and it is still the only widely used technological concept that is not owned by anyone, but is highly utilized.
The birth of the interconnected network technology known as the Internet became a game changer for marketing professionals and business because of the astronomical potential that it has in terms of changing the world. The key characteristics of the Internet that makes it an effective tool for marketing are, each network can stand on its own and implement its own changes, communication is an inherited trait drawn from packet transmission function, and the Internet has no global control at the operational level (Leiner et. al., 2009). Based on the aforementioned characteristics, reaching the global network by connecting from one black box to another allows a continuous flow of information from one station to another. In general, the Internet can be compared to a human brain that contains billions of interconnected neurons. On the other hand, the Internet was first used in marketing through advertisement bars, which first appeared during the 1990s (ecommerce.hostip.info, 2014). After which, newsletters with links to brand websites emerged including the ones that are being sent via e-mail, which gave the term for multiple messages sent as spamming. After a decade of continuous development in the field of website platform, the world of business has changed dramatically from relying on banner adds to social media and other marketing strategies that encompasses the use of the Internet.
The Internet Driven Global Market Place
In an entry from the journal of marketing strategies that the original marketing mix of 4Ps has changed in purpose due to the advent of Internet-driven strategies in implementing marketing objectives (Goi, 2009). Among the important concepts that Internet had introduced in the field of marketing are consistent brand culture, and strategic market segmentation. Traditionally, the corporate culture in some of the biggest brands in the world rolls out marketing strategies for the local branches to implement. However, the effect of the Internet in the global marketing caused the shift for companies in creating new experience for their customers. The major cause of the shift was attributed to the rapid rise of digital channels for corporations in reflecting their product identity. The digital age gave rise to the slogan “think big, think global,” which constitutes an idea of undermining geographical borders in marketing products and services to consumers. For example, a bakery in Paris that sells the best bagels and croissants to locals can now let the world experience their delicacies. The social media for instance introduced a new way for corporations to reach a broader market segment by directly engaging the consumers.
Pricing strategy is one of the effects of the Internet to global marketing. Increase in information dissemination has resulted to tighter competition among firms that in return caused prices to shift dramatically. Interactive shopping agents have increased in years following the development of e-commerce. In addition, the rise of interactive shopping agents also paved the way for the increase of online suppliers (Yannopoulus, 2011). Such development has created an impact towards the distribution of strategies where greater convenience in online shopping fostered a new way of consumer shopping at home. Although it is more time consuming for most online shoppers due to long delivery window, the impact of online shopping still had a positive output towards profitability (Yannopoulus, 2011). Time compression is also considered as an important change in traditional distribution. In traditional distribution method, a certain time schedule is being followed according to the operational hours. However, the Internet changed the way product distribution takes place. Anytime and order was created, companies can process and deliver the goods in half the time consumed in traditional distribution.
The death of distance on the other hand enables boundless delivery of products and services. Location matters for businesses in order to focus their marketing efforts within their local trading area. Locations normally require high traffic in order to determine possible sales volume. The problem with internet-based business is that physical human traffic depends on location accessibility. As compared to online business, traffic is easier to generate and the source for traffic is not limited to the number of people walking by the store vicinity. Furthermore, death of distance implies that geographic location is no longer a factor in terms of monetizing services involving multi-media, text, and image processing (Eid, 2005).
The innovation emerging from the Internet-based intervention in business market is referred to as e-commerce. When business transactions are being conducted with the aid of computer, the process itself defines the concept of e-commerce. Large corporations are now engaged in the concept of doing business within the virtual environment. The cost of conducting business online is considerably lower than maintaining a physical place of business (Gangeshwer, 2013). Anyone with a stable Internet connection, a well constructed website, online payment facility, and products and ideas to sell would be able to conduct business successfully. Furthermore, the new concept also uses several other online platforms such as social media, blog, and multi-media contents to effectively communicate marketing strategies. The social media for instance have created an avenue for online socialization that changed the way people interact online. Businesses on the other hand see the platform as a potential tool for product communication as social media can potentially bring the news about the products on a global scale of audiences.
Conclusion
The effect of the Internet towards global marketing is the emergence new strategies that go beyond the principles of 4Ps. Product recognition become more effective when communicated through Internet-assisted platforms. In addition, the Internet had shifted the way geographical boundaries put a limit to firms in reaching out for new markets and adding more market segments for branding. The Internet gave a new definition to market experience; the usual strategies in marketing that involves newsletters, advertising through billboards, posters, and flyers are now fading from being an effective method of communicating strategies. The Internet in particular opens new doors for innovations not only in terms of introducing new approach in marketing, but also changing the way people do business.
References
Directom.com. (2014, May 9). Internet Marketing Terms Glossary: Understand Online Marketing | Direct Online Marketing. Retrieved from http://www.directom.com/resources/internetmarketingtermglossary
Eid, R. (2005). International internet marketing : A triangulation study of drivers and barriers in the business-to-business context in the United Kingdom. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 23(3), 6-11. doi:10.1108/02634500510597300
Gangeshwer, D. K. (2013). E-Commerce or Internet Marketing: A Business Review from Indian Context. International Journal of u- and e- Service, Science and Technology,6(6), 187-194. Retrieved from http://www.sersc.org/journals/IJUNESST/vol6_no6/17.pdf
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Yannopoulos, P. (2011). Impact of the Internet on Marketing Strategy Formulation.International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(18), 1-7. Retrieved from http://www.ijbssnet.com/journals/Vol_2_No_18_October_2011/1.pdf
