Discuss the sources of internet-based drivers for development of competitive advantage for virtual organisaitons and markets

Online Marketing

Relatively few companies are able to start with a 'clean sheet of as far as Internet operations are concerned . For most companies , setting up Internet operations involves a significant degree of cultural and structural change . It also usually means running both 'traditional ' and 'new ' business alongside each other , and developing an appropriate degree of integration between them to create useful synergies (Chaston 2001 ) Although a number of lessons can be learned from the bursting of the dotcom bubble . Therefore , the proper marketing strategy is very important for business on-line p

The idea of the marketing mix has been around for many years - well before an 'e- ' came in front of Marketing or anything else . As far back as the first half of the twentieth century , the job of the marketer was described as a 'mixer of ingredients (Berry , Shostack and Upah , 1983 ?O

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`-known '4 ' here as a framework for examining online marketing operations . The operational aspects of the other three will be incorporated where relevant . Typical marketing decisions classified by the 7Ps Framework are : place , product , price , people , process and physical evidence (Keith , 2003 ) The contention is based on relationship marketing 's long-term view , customer orientation , means of differentiation and the economics of customer retention

It is evident that earlier innovations have had radical impacts on society , but perhaps not always in ways expected at the time . The perspective lent by distance is necessary to comprehend the full extent of the changes taking place over a significant period of time (Borden 1999 ) The value of such historical thinking for marketers centres upon the additional insights it provides to analysis of the current business environment . Our capacity to plan for the future can be enhanced by understanding how earlier innovations appeared at the time , so that we do not apply the standards of the present to the past through the rosy glow of hindsight . We would like conclude by observing that if the existing process is a significant building block for innovation as noted above , then perhaps as marketers we should not be too quick to abandon traditional business principles in our enthusiasm for new ideas , but rather to 'mix and match ' as customer needs and market conditions dictate

Bibliography

Berry , L . L , Shostack , G . L . and Upah , G . D (1983 ) Emerging Perspectives on Services Marketing , Chicago : American Marketing Association

Borden , N . H (1999 'The concepts of the marketing mix , Journal of Marketing Research , June , 4 :2-7

Chaston , I (2001 ) Strategic Internet Marketing , Maidenhead , UK McGraw-Hill

Keith , R . J (2003 'The marketing revolution , Journal of Marketing 24 35-38

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